Surgeons perform first dual-organ transplant on LVAD patient

Editor's Note

A Florida transplant team has performed the first-ever heart-liver transplant in a patient supported by a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), offering a potential new treatment route for those previously ineligible due to high rejection risk, CBS News reported June 21.

The patient, whose antibody levels placed her at high risk of rejecting any organ, had exhausted standard immunosuppressive approaches, the outlet reports. Although combined heart-liver transplants provide a means of reducing antibody levels, the procedure had never been performed on a patient with an LVAD. Nonetheless, the procedure was deemed preferable to palliative care after months of complications and hospitalizations. The surgery also involved an additional unusual step: transplanting he patient’s own healthy liver into another recipient in a domino procedure.

A second patient has reportedly undergone a similar surgery, and a third is being planned. The full article offers additional detail and context on the patient’s story, her follow-up care, and the surgery itself.