New developments for liver transplants at Addenbrooke’s Hospital
08 Mar 20193min read
Team Consulting
Company update
The OrganOx metra, a pioneering liver perfusion system that Team developed with our client, has been approved for use on the NHS. The system is currently being trialled at a number of NHS hospitals, including in nearby Cambridge. Team recently welcomed Professor Christopher Watson, Consultant Transplant Surgeon and abdominal organ transplant expert, to present a short talk on the liver perfusion trial that is underway at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Cambridge saw the first liver transplant in Europe performed over 50 years ago, and the current trial is a testament to how far transplant technology has advanced since then. Not only does use of the perfusion system improve patient outcomes following transplant, but it also increases the number of livers that can be assessed and used for transplant in the first place. Professor Watson gave an overview of the current situation with liver donation and transplantation in the UK, as well as detailing the successes seen during the trial at Addenbrooke’s. The number of liver transplants performed in the UK is increasing year on year, but 1 in 9 patients still die on the transplant waiting list, while a third of potential donor livers go unused. Professor Watson’s talk provided an invaluable insight into the real-world impact that our work is having less than 10 miles from our office. “It was a pleasure to discuss our liver perfusion experience with Team Consulting, who originally developed the technology on behalf of OrganOx. It is an opportunity for clinicians and technologists to ‘close the loop’ so to speak and to discuss the real-world use of a new medical technology.” Professor Christopher Watson, Consultant Transplant Surgeon. A member of the original product development team at Team, Jonathan Oakley, comments: “It was great to see just how effective the system that I had a hand in developing is proving to be, both in regard to the original aim of simply extending the time for which a liver can be kept before transplant, but also the aspiration of making more livers available, by giving surgeons time and information to assess them properly.” The trial at Addenbrooke’s is being funded by charitable donations: Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust’s transplant appeal is aiming to raise £250,000 to trial the OrganOx metra technology for an initial two years and increase the number of life-saving transplants they are able to perform.
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