Enter the next generation of artificial hearts. Like the one
recently implanted into a patient in
Kentucky, these are designed
to improve survival odds. For example, this new heart is fully
enclosed in the patient's chest and is powered by a battery outside
the body that transmits electrical currents through the skin.
These and other advances may someday lead to a permanent artificial
heart. "The Kentucky pump is also being tested as a temporary
bridge, but in my own judgement, I think it's a reasonable
expectation that one day the device, or another like it, will be
approved as a permanent solution to late-stage heart failure," says
John A. Jarcho, MD, co-director of the cardiac transplant service
at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Variances
Rules governing when a patient receives a donated organ are very
strict. However, with thousands being added to the waiting lists
every year in the U.S. alone, the United Network for Organ Sharing,
the umbrella organization that regulates organ transplants under
federal contracts, has begun testing some alternative allocation
plans, or variances.
Living donor/cadaver exchange: Someone who wants to donate a kidney
to a friend or relative but isn't a match can agree to donate to
the general waiting list pool. In exchange, the friend or relative
moves up the list to receive the next available organ. In the
first-ever such case, a 13-year-old
Massachusetts boy recently got
a kidney after his mother agreed to donate one of hers to a
stranger.
Paired donation: Someone who wants to but is unable to donate a
kidney can be matched to another person in the same predicament. If
each of their organs matches the other person's recipient, an
exchange is possible.
"We're testing these variances in only certain areas of the
country," says
Anne Paschke, a UNOS spokesperson. "But if they
increase availability, we may extend them nationwide and to other
organs."