National Taiwan University Hospital successfully completed the world's first zero-ischemia time heart transplant surgery. The patient recovered smoothly and was discharged from the hospital smoothly. This marks a major breakthrough in the field of heart transplantation. Since the 1980s, National Taiwan University Hospital has been at the forefront of heart transplantation in Taiwan and successfully completed Taiwan's first heart transplant in 1990. To date, National Taiwan University Hospital has completed more than 700 heart transplant surgeries. This rich clinical experience laid the foundation for the success of this groundbreaking surgery, the details of which were published in the authoritative journal "Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgical Technology".
The NTUH team this week is with the woman (10th from left) who received a new heart after undergoing this extraordinary surgery last August at National Taiwan University Hospital
Traditional heart transplantation requires removing the donor heart and preserving it in a refrigerated solution to reduce metabolic demands. However, this inevitably triggers a period of ischemia during which the heart loses blood supply, which may negatively impact cardiac function and transplant success. The novelty of zero-ischemia time transplantation is to maintain continuous perfusion of the myocardium, thereby eliminating ischemic damage and minimizing reperfusion injury. By ensuring that the donor heart continues to beat throughout the procedure, tissue damage is reduced and is expected to improve post-operative heart function and patient survival.
The heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support teams at National Taiwan University Hospital jointly designed an organ maintenance system that can continuously perfuse the heart with oxygenated blood to keep it beating throughout the transplant process. This breakthrough system completely eliminates ischemia time, improving donor heart survival and recipient recovery. The National Taiwan University Hospital team has proven the feasibility, safety and effectiveness of this technology through two consecutive successful surgeries. They also optimized the technical aspects of the transplant process and coordinated logistics to ensure a smoother surgical process.
The successful heart transplant operation used National Taiwan University Hospital's proprietary organ preservation system, representing a paradigm shift in transplantation methodology. This not only demonstrates the excellent clinical services of National Taiwan University Hospital, but also creates a new field of global transplant medicine. Looking forward to the future, National Taiwan University Hospital will continue to improve transplantation procedures and enhance organ preservation technology so that more patients can benefit from zero-ischemia time heart transplantation.