Day for Organ Donation
Milan , May 31, 2015 – 10:28
Anna Partridges, of Arezzo, 52, to five years and six months coexists with a titanium turbine that helps his heart. It is the longest Italian patient supported by a support system of the heart’s left ventricle. His life has changed for the positive after more than 10 years of struggle against dilated cardiomyopathy appearance when Mrs. Anna was not yet 50 years old and deteriorated sharply around his 57th birthday. Difficult transplantation, apart from the shortage of donors, for a pulmonary pressure too high resulting to his heart run down. So he has known Jarvik 2000, the name of the turbine titanium that have implanted in 2009 at the Polyclinic of Siena The Sheets. An example. An alternative to waiting lists for a heart transplant. Central theme of the Day for Organ Donation (31 May), promoted by the National Transplant Centre (CNT) and associations of donors and patients Aido, Admo, Aned, Acti, AITF. Many problems and many new products that currently characterize the world of organ transplants. Technological advances in road safety have cut down the number of victims of accidents, and this is certainly good; good but limited availability of organs for transplant.
In Italian heart transplants, for example, fell from nearly 350 in 2005 to 226 in 2014. The application in the same period remained stable, with a waiting list indeed increased slightly from 702 to 719 patients waiting for a new heart. A list from which come some 300 people a year, unfortunately also in the worst way (mortality 6.1% equal to about 60 deaths, since 2013). Countless patients who, because of age or other parameters incompatible with the transplant, can not even get on hold (http://www.trapianti.salute.gov.it/) and hope. The Municipalities (ANCI) were involved to promote the culture of organ donation. The Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin gave a strong boost to the municipalities it did parties active in urging citizens to explain its decisions on the donation. After his appeal joined about 200 municipalities, now in total over 450. The recorded statements from their offices were about 15 thousand in 2014, the trend is growing and it is hoped that this year will get to 40 thousand statements. What better occasion of the Day of organ donation to talk with family and friends?
The technology intervenes to try to limit the differential between supply and demand of organs : we resort to artificial implants, and as a temporary solution while waiting for transplantation and as a permanent therapy. In addition, newer equipment can improve the conservation of organs taken from the donor and of delaying their availability. And ‘thanks to these new systems that in March this year in England, for the first time in Europe, it was possible to explant a heart now completely still, wake it and recover the function. Finally, the long awaited transplant.
Today, if there is a donation activates a system Alert run by NTC or fees Regional Centers (depends on the type of organ). Within hours, the potential recipient must be contacted, accept the donation, go to your own frame of reference and prepare intervention. The donor organ arrives within 3-6 hours by means of law enforcement, or air transport dedicated, and is stored in freezer laptops not very different from those of Sunday picnics. In a recent episode of coordination between health facilities and the State Police, 11 teams of four hospitals in Lombardy and Tuscany have played in succession six cross-over kidney transplants from living donors, triggered first Italian case, the noble gesture of a donation “Samaritan”: someone who has given a kidney altruistically, ie without any joint in the lane in a situation of need. To enable this incredible series of interventions, in addition to the generosity of donors, to all medical professionals involved and impressive organizational machine, there was the Lamborghini Gallardo Police that the 300 per hour, has been commuting from one hospital to another carrying the precious cargo lifesaving quickly.
In order to prevent the rapid decay of the organs, always the technology today makes available a sort of incubator portable , at the time to lung, heart and liver. By adjusting the various parameters of the machine, it can take 12 to 24 hours the time of organ availability. It is estimated that thanks to this trick the availability of organs could grow to about 30 percent. In Italy these machines, which are called “Organ Care System”, are being tested in Padua and Udine. Then there are the so-called artificial hearts latest generation. Properly it is supports the electromechanical ventricular function. Portable and battery-powered: the patient can wait for transplantation while maintaining an acceptable quality of life. The power cord is however a problem: passing outside of the body through the abdominal wall, constitutes a dangerous door for infections. It should therefore be regularly medicated and monitored.
However, if the transplant option is not viable, there is something further advanced . Like that of Ms. Anna. It is suppose electromechanical (also called Vad, Ventricular assist device) powered by a cable from the heart, passing within the body, goes back up to the area behind the ear, particularly suited because well vascularized and much more solid abdomen . In this area the surgeon applies the skull a kind of plug that works as an interface between the internal cables connected to the device, and external cables, which lead to the batteries and the control console. The quality of life is high, considering that patients can also bathe and shower. A real luxury for those who live hooked to machines, albeit evolved and less bulky. Machines which, as in the case of Anna partridges, become part of the body itself, apart from the pin that comes out from behind the ear. “With the Jarvik 2000 – explains Guido Sani, director of advanced therapies for heart failure of Careggi in Florence and coordinator of the Regional Centre heart transplants – Mrs. Anna regained the pleasure and the desire to live, has expanded its store in center of Arezzo and it now enjoys children and grandchildren in this sort of second life. ” The future of the device? “Batteries with better performance, contactless charging systems and further miniaturization, while in France you look carefully at the human trials of the total artificial heart Carmat”, a prototype implantable fully reached the third case (the transaction took place on 8 April). The first two patients, in heart failure terminal and not candidates for transplantation, have survived with this type of heart respectively 74 days and 9 months.
May 31, 2015 | 10:28
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment