Word: livers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Like some 150 other young children in the U.S., 21-month-old Alyssa Smith was waiting for a new liver, her one chance to avoid death at an early age. Her prospects did not look bright, since the supply of livers taken from cadavers and suitable for transplant is critically slim. But last week a team of surgeons at the University of Chicago Medical Center gave the little girl from Schertz, Texas, her chance to live. And what seemed truly miraculous about the operation was the source of Alyssa's new liver: her mother...
...hour procedure, the surgeons removed the fist-size left lobe from 29-year-old Teresa Smith's liver and transplanted most of it into her daughter. The revolutionary technique -- transplanting a liver from a living donor -- had been performed in Brazil, Australia and Japan, but this was the first time it was tried in the U.S. Doctors have had a great deal of success in kidney, pancreas and bone-marrow transplants from living donors, and hope is rising that the liver will join that list. Says Dr. Christoph Broelsch, who led the Chicago transplant team: "This surgery potentially opens...
...both mother and daughter are doing well. Because the liver has the power to regenerate itself by forming new tissue, Teresa's liver should grow back to its normal size. Similarly, baby Alyssa's new liver should grow as she does...
...operation was not without serious complications. While the surgeons were removing part of Teresa's liver, they tore her spleen and decided they had to remove it. The loss of the spleen means she will be slightly more susceptible to infections, and may have to take antibiotics for the rest of her life. To gain access to the liver, the doctors also had to remove Teresa's gall bladder. As for the baby, she had to undergo a second operation to stop bleeding from her new liver. The doctors hope Teresa can be released from the hospital this week...
...reaction occurred in dogs alone and undertook a graduated series of experiments on several other animals, from rats to baboons. These tests were encouraging, and in February 1989 Starzl tried the drug on Robin Ford, a 26- year-old secretary who was in danger of rejecting her third liver. After two weeks of FK-506 treatments, she recovered completely. Says Ford: "It's incredible how great this drug...