What's the solution to Toronto's traffic problems? - University of ...

Leading Edge
If he does qualify for
the Olympics, this
destroys the concept
of disability
Phys-ed prof Greg Wells on
Oscar Pistorius, who runs
using two prosthetic legs
p. 23
Dr. Marcelo Cypel and
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee
at the Latner Thoracic
Surgery Research
Laboratories
A Cut Above
U of T researchers have devised a
way to refurbish donor lungs before
they’re transplanted
JUST LIKE OLD CARS, used and slightly damaged human
organs can now be refurbished before they are passed on
to new owners.
Every year in Toronto, some 300 sets of lungs become
available for transplant, but only about 100 of them are used.
The rest are deemed too injured – they have water inside
them or carry hospital infections – so they are discarded.
But what if you could take a damaged lung from a donor
and fix it outside the body before transplanting it
Dr. Marcelo Cypel and Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, both thoracic
surgeons with the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, have
done exactly that.
Typically, when a lung becomes available, it is chilled and
then transplanted as quickly as possible, usually within a few
hours. Cypel and Keshavjee, however, using their “Toronto
technique,” keep the lung at body temperature. They place it
under a protective dome and perfuse it with a bloodless solution
of oxygen, nutrients and antibiotics, among other things.
A lung can last at least 12 hours under these conditions.
The technique offers two clear advantages over chilling.
First, as they watch the lung breathe and measure its function,
the surgeons can carefully assess its quality – something that
can’t be done while it’s preserved on ice and dormant. Some
lungs that look good on visual inspection end up performing
poorly; others that look bad perform well. The other advantage
is that at least some damaged lungs can be rehabilitated:
fluid-filled lungs can be dried out and infected ones can
PHOTO: LORNE BRIDGMAN summer 2012 19