Second Patient to Receive Pig Kidney Has Organ Removed

WEDNESDAY, June 5, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Forty-seven days after becoming the second patient to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, a woman has had to have the organ removed.

Lisa Pisano, 54, remains hospitalized and has been transferred back to kidney dialysis after having the transplanted organ removed.

The organ had not been rejected by her body. However, Pisano is battling both kidney failure and heart failure, and a heart pump that she needed to survive failed to provide adequate blood supply to the new kidney, doctors at NYU Langone Transplant Institute in New York City told The New York Times.

“Lisa is in stable condition, and her left ventricular assist device is still functioning. We are hoping to get Lisa back home to her family soon,” said Robert Montgomery, M.D., who directs the institute. “Lisa is a pioneer and a hero in the effort to create a sustainable option for people waiting for an organ transplant.”

Pisano is the first patient with a heart pump to undergo any kind of organ transplant. Patients with kidney failure are often not allowed to receive such devices because their risk for death is so high.

Technological innovations such as cloning and gene editing have led to great advances in the field of animal-to-human organ transplantation. However, the procedures are still experimental and only patients who are so ill that they are not eligible for a human organ and may die without treatment have so far been given clearance to receive animal organs.

The New York Times Article