Latest news with #transplantteam
Zawya
6 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi saves Kuwaiti mother's life with double organ transplant
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has successfully carried out a combined liver and kidney transplant on Nashami, a Kuwaiti mother of three, who was diagnosed with advanced liver disease and kidney failure caused by primary biliary cirrhosis. Referred by doctors in Kuwait and the UK for the hospital's expertise in advanced transplant care, Nashami was placed on a shared UAE-Kuwait waiting list under the organ sharing agreement established between both countries in 2021. The programme has saved over 180 lives through coordinated efforts between medical teams, embassies, airports and hospitals. The surgery, performed by Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi's multidisciplinary transplant team, began with a liver transplant followed by a kidney transplant, with minimal blood loss and reduced time between donor organ retrieval and transplantation to preserve organ function. Dr. Luis Campos, Staff Physician, Abdominal Transplant, said the complexity of the case demonstrated the strength of the hospital's integrated teams and surgical protocols. Dr. Baraa Abduljawad, Staff Physician, Critical Care, noted that optimising the timing of transplantation significantly improves outcomes. Since launching the UAE's first multi-organ transplant programme in 2017, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has completed over 900 transplants, including liver, kidney, heart and lung procedures. In 2024 alone, it treated patients from more than 100 countries, many requiring highly complex, life-saving surgeries. Through the National Programme for Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Hayat), and with the support of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, the hospital continues to transform donations into second chances for critically ill patients.
CNN
13-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
‘Whole again': Man receives double hand transplant after nearly 17 years
FacebookTweetLink Follow There's a video on Luka Krizanac's phone that captures him making coffee at home on an espresso machine. It's the type of video anyone might take to show off a new gadget to friends or recommend a favorite bag of beans. But the normalcy is exactly what makes it extraordinary for Krizanac – because just a few months ago, he didn't have hands. Krizanac lost parts of his arms and legs at age 12 after a mismanaged infection led to sepsis and severe complications that required amputation. Last fall, nearly 17 years later, he received a double hand transplant at Penn Medicine. Hand transplants are rare: Only 148 had been performed worldwide as of mid-2023, according to one study, and not all were double transplants. More than 20 people were involved in Krizanac's surgery, which lasted about 12 hours and followed years of practice. As the anesthesia was wearing off, Krizanac turned to one of the nurses at his bedside and said, 'Look how beautiful my hands are.' He doesn't remember that moment – it was later recounted to him by the nurse – but the profound sentiment remains. 'I don't mean that just in an aesthetic way, but just a deep feeling of being whole again as a human,' he said. For Krizanac, living without hands was more challenging than living without legs. Hands are required for thousands of essential everyday things, and the prosthetics he had simply couldn't fill the need as well as the prosthetics he had for his legs, he said. 'I don't think the question is even, 'What can't you do?' It's 'How can you live?' ' he said. 'With your legs, you walk. With your hands, you do thousands of things, from eating, taking care of yourself, to cooking, to expressing yourself. So trying to compensate for lack of arms with a plastic robotic hand is just impossible.' The childhood he knew before ceased to exist, and he was confronted with a loss of independence, relying heavily on the strong support of loving family and friends. 'As you grow up, you want more independence. Naturally, as humans, we should be independent once we grow up,' Krizanac said. 'I was not able to achieve that due to lack of working hands. So that need increased, definitely, over time.' Krizanac was adamant about not letting his disability define him and maintained a positive outlook by trying to live in the present, but he and his family continued to search for ways to help improve his quality of life. They pursued hand transplantation for years, but numerous obstacles – including insurance coverage and a lack of access to skilled providers – stalled progress. 'I knew that the solution existed for my problem, and the question was how to reach that solution,' Krizanac said. In 2018, about a decade after he lost his hands, a series of fortuitous connections brought Krizanac from his home in Switzerland to Dr. L. Scott Levin's office in Philadelphia. Levin, chair emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of plastic surgery at Penn Medicine, was immediately impressed by Krizanac's poise, and he quickly endeared himself to the full team. 'For a variety of reasons, he was a superb candidate for hand transplant,' Levin said. 'He fulfilled every characteristic: intelligent, informed, incredible family support.' But another set of challenges – including a global pandemic and wounds that had developed on Krizanac's legs – delayed the process even further. 'During the pandemic, we had to put things on hold,' Levin said. 'And for the reason that he had open wounds and skin breakdown [on his legs], he would have never been allowed to have his hand transplant, because the open wounds and the risk of infection … would have prevented us from proceeding.' But Levin and a colleague flew out to Switzerland to treat his legs, diving into preparations for the hand transplant once back in Philadelphia while Krizanac healed. Preparing for a double hand transplant generally takes about two years, barring other complications. But by late 2024, Levin and his team were ready. They had completed more than dozen rehearsal sessions, mapping out the intricate steps needed to blend nerves, muscles, blood vessels and bones. Krizanac moved to Philadelphia and did his best to enjoy his stay while anxiously awaiting an update. The call came on a rainy Sunday afternoon about two months later: There was a match. The Gift of Life, an organ donation program, had found donor hands from a person who had the right skin tone, size and gender – a unique set of considerations hat can make the match process more complex than some others. In a matter of minutes, Krizanac was packing up and heading over to the hospital, and he was in his room within an hour. 'When you decided something is right for you over the years and you are determined to work towards this goal, once you get the green light, there is no thinking,' Krizanac said. 'I did not have any reservations about the procedure. I was fully confident that after 17 years, I knew what was right for me.' A well-orchestrated team – including plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, transplant specialists, anesthesia and nursing – worked concurrently on Krizanac and the donor. After blood vessels were sutured together, circulation was monitored with various devices. Nerves take time to regenerate, so it was impossible to know in the operating room whether that part of the operation had been successful. 'We count on the nerves to regenerate, but that's not assured. All we can do is technically do the best coaptation, the best nerve repair we can do day of injury with incredible precision using the operating microscope,' Levin said. 'With a little luck, if you will, and careful planning and execution of the operation, the nerves from the donor will grow into the muscles.' Today, Krizanac is healing exceptionally well, Levin said. Nerves will continue to grow into his arms, and his recovery will continue to evolve over the next few years. 'The sensation, the ability to feel, improves. His strength gets more. He starts to get back the fine muscles in the hand,' Levin said. 'He's well on his way. Of all the transplant patients we've seen, his neural recovery has been the most accelerated.' In addition to three or four physical therapy sessions each week, Krizanac is taking a few medications to help keep his body from rejecting the hands – a regimen similar to that of someone who had a kidney transplant. One of the medications, a calcineurin inhibitor called tacrolimus, has also been found to help with nerve regeneration. Krizanac feels that he's on a path toward regaining independence, too. About a month after his surgery, he was using his phone with his new hands. And while washing his hands a few months later, he was surprised when the feeling of cold water made him jump back. 'I reflexively pulled back from the cold water. And this was really an a-ha moment where I thought, 'Oh, my God, I feel the temperature of the water,'' he said. Hand transplantation is considered an elective 'quality of life' procedure, but Levin says there's an obligation for the medical field to provide the same level of care and consideration for patients like Krizanac as there would be for someone who needed a liver transplant – as long as they are properly prepared and informed. 'This is a field of transplantation that must continue to be supported. Our research, our clinical care, our education,' he said. 'For this field to be thwarted by the inability for insurance to pay for this or other agencies to accept it – for specific patients – that would be really a crime.' Krizanac has ambitious goals for himself that are starting to feel more real, like hopefully getting a driver's license. Really, he just wants to be a regular adult guy. 'Even though everything is recovering, even though this process is highly complex in terms of surgery and rehabilitation, these are two healthy hands, and it's just a question of time and commitment until that is regained,' he said. For now, smaller things bring him great joy. He recorded the video of himself making espresso because he's honing his skills as an amateur barista – a hobby that he wouldn't have been able to pursue without his hand transplant. 'I'm more of a cappuccino guy, but he can make me espresso anytime he wants,' Levin said. CNN's Asuka Koda contributed to this report.
CNN
13-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
‘Whole again': Man receives double hand transplant after nearly 17 years
FacebookTweetLink Follow There's a video on Luka Krizanac's phone that captures him making coffee at home on an espresso machine. It's the type of video anyone might take to show off a new gadget to friends or recommend a favorite bag of beans. But the normalcy is exactly what makes it extraordinary for Krizanac – because just a few months ago, he didn't have hands. Krizanac lost parts of his arms and legs at age 12 after a mismanaged infection led to sepsis and severe complications that required amputation. Last fall, nearly 17 years later, he received a double hand transplant at Penn Medicine. Hand transplants are rare: Only 148 had been performed worldwide as of mid-2023, according to one study, and not all were double transplants. More than 20 people were involved in Krizanac's surgery, which lasted about 12 hours and followed years of practice. As the anesthesia was wearing off, Krizanac turned to one of the nurses at his bedside and said, 'Look how beautiful my hands are.' He doesn't remember that moment – it was later recounted to him by the nurse – but the profound sentiment remains. 'I don't mean that just in an aesthetic way, but just a deep feeling of being whole again as a human,' he said. For Krizanac, living without hands was more challenging than living without legs. Hands are required for thousands of essential everyday things, and the prosthetics he had simply couldn't fill the need as well as the prosthetics he had for his legs, he said. 'I don't think the question is even, 'What can't you do?' It's 'How can you live?' ' he said. 'With your legs, you walk. With your hands, you do thousands of things, from eating, taking care of yourself, to cooking, to expressing yourself. So trying to compensate for lack of arms with a plastic robotic hand is just impossible.' The childhood he knew before ceased to exist, and he was confronted with a loss of independence, relying heavily on the strong support of loving family and friends. 'As you grow up, you want more independence. Naturally, as humans, we should be independent once we grow up,' Krizanac said. 'I was not able to achieve that due to lack of working hands. So that need increased, definitely, over time.' Krizanac was adamant about not letting his disability define him and maintained a positive outlook by trying to live in the present, but he and his family continued to search for ways to help improve his quality of life. They pursued hand transplantation for years, but numerous obstacles – including insurance coverage and a lack of access to skilled providers – stalled progress. 'I knew that the solution existed for my problem, and the question was how to reach that solution,' Krizanac said. In 2018, about a decade after he lost his hands, a series of fortuitous connections brought Krizanac from his home in Switzerland to Dr. L. Scott Levin's office in Philadelphia. Levin, chair emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of plastic surgery at Penn Medicine, was immediately impressed by Krizanac's poise, and he quickly endeared himself to the full team. 'For a variety of reasons, he was a superb candidate for hand transplant,' Levin said. 'He fulfilled every characteristic: intelligent, informed, incredible family support.' But another set of challenges – including a global pandemic and wounds that had developed on Krizanac's legs – delayed the process even further. 'During the pandemic, we had to put things on hold,' Levin said. 'And for the reason that he had open wounds and skin breakdown [on his legs], he would have never been allowed to have his hand transplant, because the open wounds and the risk of infection … would have prevented us from proceeding.' But Levin and a colleague flew out to Switzerland to treat his legs, diving into preparations for the hand transplant once back in Philadelphia while Krizanac healed. Preparing for a double hand transplant generally takes about two years, barring other complications. But by late 2024, Levin and his team were ready. They had completed more than dozen rehearsal sessions, mapping out the intricate steps needed to blend nerves, muscles, blood vessels and bones. Krizanac moved to Philadelphia and did his best to enjoy his stay while anxiously awaiting an update. The call came on a rainy Sunday afternoon about two months later: There was a match. The Gift of Life, an organ donation program, had found donor hands from a person who had the right skin tone, size and gender – a unique set of considerations hat can make the match process more complex than some others. In a matter of minutes, Krizanac was packing up and heading over to the hospital, and he was in his room within an hour. 'When you decided something is right for you over the years and you are determined to work towards this goal, once you get the green light, there is no thinking,' Krizanac said. 'I did not have any reservations about the procedure. I was fully confident that after 17 years, I knew what was right for me.' A well-orchestrated team – including plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, transplant specialists, anesthesia and nursing – worked concurrently on Krizanac and the donor. After blood vessels were sutured together, circulation was monitored with various devices. Nerves take time to regenerate, so it was impossible to know in the operating room whether that part of the operation had been successful. 'We count on the nerves to regenerate, but that's not assured. All we can do is technically do the best coaptation, the best nerve repair we can do day of injury with incredible precision using the operating microscope,' Levin said. 'With a little luck, if you will, and careful planning and execution of the operation, the nerves from the donor will grow into the muscles.' Today, Krizanac is healing exceptionally well, Levin said. Nerves will continue to grow into his arms, and his recovery will continue to evolve over the next few years. 'The sensation, the ability to feel, improves. His strength gets more. He starts to get back the fine muscles in the hand,' Levin said. 'He's well on his way. Of all the transplant patients we've seen, his neural recovery has been the most accelerated.' In addition to three or four physical therapy sessions each week, Krizanac is taking a few medications to help keep his body from rejecting the hands – a regimen similar to that of someone who had a kidney transplant. One of the medications, a calcineurin inhibitor called tacrolimus, has also been found to help with nerve regeneration. Krizanac feels that he's on a path toward regaining independence, too. About a month after his surgery, he was using his phone with his new hands. And while washing his hands a few months later, he was surprised when the feeling of cold water made him jump back. 'I reflexively pulled back from the cold water. And this was really an a-ha moment where I thought, 'Oh, my God, I feel the temperature of the water,'' he said. Hand transplantation is considered an elective 'quality of life' procedure, but Levin says there's an obligation for the medical field to provide the same level of care and consideration for patients like Krizanac as there would be for someone who needed a liver transplant – as long as they are properly prepared and informed. 'This is a field of transplantation that must continue to be supported. Our research, our clinical care, our education,' he said. 'For this field to be thwarted by the inability for insurance to pay for this or other agencies to accept it – for specific patients – that would be really a crime.' Krizanac has ambitious goals for himself that are starting to feel more real, like hopefully getting a driver's license. Really, he just wants to be a regular adult guy. 'Even though everything is recovering, even though this process is highly complex in terms of surgery and rehabilitation, these are two healthy hands, and it's just a question of time and commitment until that is regained,' he said. For now, smaller things bring him great joy. He recorded the video of himself making espresso because he's honing his skills as an amateur barista – a hobby that he wouldn't have been able to pursue without his hand transplant. 'I'm more of a cappuccino guy, but he can make me espresso anytime he wants,' Levin said. CNN's Asuka Koda contributed to this report.
Health Line
28-05-2025
- General
- Health Line
Can You Donate Part of Your Liver to Someone with Cirrhosis?
Liver donation can offer hope to people with later-stage liver disease. Cirrhosis (liver scarring) is typically not reversible, so treatment aims to manage symptoms and help prevent further complications. If a person wishes to become a liver donor, they and the recipient will need to consider certain factors and undergo evaluation before deciding on this option. What is living liver donation? Living liver donation is a procedure in which a healthy adult donates a portion of their liver to someone with end stage liver disease. Living liver donation is possible because the liver is the only solid organ in the human body that can regenerate itself completely. In healthy donors, the donated liver portion is typically about half the total liver, and this can fully regenerate within a few months. Who can receive a living liver donation? Living liver donation is an option for patients with end stage liver disease and various other conditions that lead to liver failure, such as cirrhosis. If you have a family member or friend who would like to donate part of their liver to you, speak with your transplant team to open up the discussion around this option. What do liver donors need to know before donating? When considering liver donation, you'll want to take into account certain factors, such as: Donor assessment: Any organ donor must have a thorough evaluation to make sure they're healthy enough to donate. This will also include blood tests such as ALT and albumin to measure liver function. Understanding: It's strongly encouraged that a donor understand the recipient's liver disease, their outlook, and the risks involved with the procedure for both parties. This information can help you make an informed decision about donation. Aftercare: After donation, both the donor's and the recipient's liver cells will start to regenerate. It's important that you are aware of what you can expect following the procedure, including timelines for recovery, strategies to aid healing, and when to expect follow-ups with your care team. Are there any conditions that disqualify someone from being a liver donor? Yes, you will not be able to donate if you have a diagnosis of certain conditions that could affect the health of your liver or increase your risks of complications, such as cirrhosis or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (previously known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis). Blood tests such as the ALT (alanine aminotransferase) test and albumin test are commonly used to assess liver function. The ALT test can detect liver damage or disease, often before symptoms appear, while the albumin test measures levels of a protein made by the liver, with low levels potentially indicating liver disease. Can I donate anonymously to someone I don't know? Yes, it's possible to donate part of your liver to someone you don't know. This is called non-directed or anonymous donation. Because the liver is able to regenerate, you can safely donate one part (or lobe) to someone in need. You do not have to be a particular blood type to apply to donate, as liver donors do not necessarily have to be the same blood type. How long does it take to recover after liver donation? Donor surgery typically takes about 6 hours. Both the donor and recipient will typically stay in the hospital from 5 to 7 days, with close monitoring by their healthcare team while they recover. After you donate, your liver cells will regenerate, and the organ will grow back to 90% of its original size within 6 to 12 weeks for healthy donors. After you leave the hospital, it's important to work closely with your healthcare team to ensure your liver is healing properly.
