United States surgeons have successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig\u2019s heart into a human patient for the first time.<\/p>\n
A 57-year-old man with terminal heart disease received the organ in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America on Friday.<\/p>\n
The University of Maryland School of Medicine said this in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function as a human heart without immediate rejection by the body,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
The hospital said the patient, a Maryland resident, was doing well three days after surgery.<\/p>\n
It added that he would be monitored for the next few weeks to determine whether the transplant had provided life-saving benefits.<\/p>\n
He was considered ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at the Maryland facility as well as at several other leading transplant centres that reviewed his medical records.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was either to die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it\u2019s a shot in the dark, but it\u2019s my last choice,\u201d the patient was quoted as saying a day before the surgery was performed.<\/p>\n
He had been hospitalised and bedridden for the past few months and said he was looking forward to recovering and to getting out of bed.<\/p>\n
The US Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorisation for the surgery on December 31, 2021.<\/p>\n