What is it about?
Successfully freezing and rat leg keeping it safe for a time, and transplanting it again. The Study in the fields of microsurgery and cryobiology bridges the gap between current organ transplantation procedures and future organ and vascular composite tissue banking.
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Photo by Martin Robles on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The goal of the study is to develop a safe, reliable, and predictable method for cryopreserving (freezing) complicated biological structures, such as a whole hand, for future implantation. The ultimate goal is to have an available wide source of ideal "replacement parts" for life saving and life improving surgery.
Perspectives
The aim of plastic reconstructive surgery is preserve form and function, ideally by replacing "like with like". This principle guides us when choosing similar tissue for reconstruction of complicated defects. This is most definitely the case with organ transplantation. Due to limited availability and complexity of such surgeries, they are mainly limited to life saving cases such as renal, heart and liver transplants and a small amount of extreme life enhancing surgeries such as hand transplantations. Yet if by long term preservation of complex biological structure such as hands, and faces we may enhance said availability we might have the opportunity to save more lives and maybe even expand the patient population and indications for which complex reconstructive surgery may be implemented.
Dr Or Friedman
Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rat Hindlimb Cryopreservation and Transplantation: A Step Toward “Organ Banking”, American Journal of Transplantation, May 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ajt.14320.
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