Hong Kong doctors first in Asia to perform heart transplant using new preservation technology
- The Organ Care System, invented in the US, protects the beating of a heart and keeps it supplied with blood during transfer for up to 10 hours
- Dr Timmy Au of Queen Mary Hospital says the technology will allow more heart transplants as well as long-distance transfers of donor organs
Hong Kong doctors have performed Asia’s first heart transplant using a new technology invented in the United States that keeps the organ warm, beating and supplied with blood during the transfer, in a medical breakthrough that will enable more life-saving operations across borders.
Dr Timmy Au Wing-kuk – chief of Queen Mary Hospital’s cardiothoracic surgery department, which carried out the medical procedure – hailed the Organ Care System as a success story that could not only allow up to five more heart transplants every year in the city, but could also be used for long-distance transfers of donor organs across various Asian cities.
“Heart transplants are never easy. Any mistake in any step, and the organ will be wasted. So the margin of error has to be minimal,” the surgeon said. “But this technology can allow multilateral cooperation among Asian cities and optimise organ donation.”
The waiting list for a heart transplant in Hong Kong has grown tenfold in as many years, from five people in 2009 to 54 in 2019. But fewer than 20 surgeries have been performed over that period, with just eight last year.
The transplant was performed last month by a team of 22 medical and nursing staff – including six cardiothoracic surgeons, three anaesthetists and four perfusionists – using the heart of a donor who was above 55 years of age and had died of a stroke.