Unapproved artificial body parts implanted in human ‘guinea pigs’ by top UK university’s scientists

Experimental implants that should only have been used in laboratory or animal tests were sent abroad and used on patients who were treated like human guinea pigs, an inquiry at one of Britain’s leading universities has found.

An artificial windpipe, an arterial graft and a synthetic tear duct manufactured by scientists at University College London were used in operations despite not being approved for use in humans, according to the inquiry’s report.

Stephen Wigmore, the professor of transplant surgery at the University of Edinburgh who chaired the inquiry, said the findings were “quite frightening” and that patients had been essentially used as “guinea pigs”.

In one case, a 26-year-old man, a drug addict living in Tehran, was implanted with a graft to bypass the femoral artery in a leg, the report said. This amounted to clinical negligence, an expert in vascular medicine told the inquiry. “In [the expert’s] opinion it was almost inevitable that ...the patient would lose their limb or their life,” said Wigmore. The outcome of the procedure was not established.

Other documents suggested that plastic discs had been sent to Mumbai, India where they were implanted under the skin of a patient in need of an ear reconstruction to test that the material was bio-compatible. The report did not find evidence to show that patients had come to harm as a direct result of these breaches, but it did not rule out the possibility either. And the findings are likely to cast a shadow over the university’s reputation for pioneering medical research.

“It’s very serious and it’s quite frightening to think that someone could be manufacturing this kind of device without knowing the regulations that govern it,” said Wigmore.