Patient suffer cancer, survived and successfully live blessing donor liver from a cow

Illustration (dok: Thinkstock)

Liver cancer is often a terrible scourge because newly detected when the disease is chronic. At that time, most of the liver is damaged and almost beyond repair. If human suffer liver cancer can not be cured, the cow liver turned out to can be a substitute.

Treatment using cow's liver is actually still new and new several times applied to humans. A British woman is one who underwent successful treatment and his life saved. This success opens the possibility of organ transplants from animals or xenotransplantation.

Initially Michelle Morgan-Grainger (42 years) often experience pain in his side. Symptoms are similar to muscle spasm and doctors suspected she had gallstones. But the results of the examination found no cancer the size of 15 cm. Fortunately, cancer cells do not spread to other parts of the body. Doctors advised to undergo surgery.

Once referred to a specialist liver center at Aintree University Hospital, a woman from Liverpool's offered to undergo treatment using cow liver. Michelle also capable. After undergoing surgery for 10 hours, 80 percent of liver Michelle discarded. Even 75 percent of the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) in the liver were also removed.

The veins are located near the liver the back and works to restore the blood from the lower body back to the heart. IVC blood vessel is then reconstructed with a patch or patches made ​​from the outer layer of the cow liver called the pericardium. Three months later, Michelle is back to work and be free of cancer 18 months.

"This is a lengthy procedure, complex and only offered in a few places in the world. Trisectionectomy operation is called a heart," said Hassan Malik, a consultant surgeon at Aintree University Hospitals hepatobilier as reported by the Daily Mail, Monday (12/31/2012).

According to Malik, there are only 5 places in Europe experienced such a procedure. To date there are approximately 150 patients worldwide have been treated using this method. Patch of cows is more widely used in cardiac surgery. In liver disease, there were 6 cases were treated using this method, 4 of which were performed by Dr. Malik.

Liver is the only organ in the body that have the ability to regenerate. Over the past 3 months, the remaining pieces of liver grows back to its original size. But doctors have to create the structure of blood vessels IVC. Liver of cow serves as a wall that gives your liver growth and blood vessel cells damaged.

That makes Michelle's heart surgery in case special is the use of materials of cow IVC and the large blood vessels that must be discarded. Typically, for these operations often use synthetic plastic material. But the risks can lead to infection and raises blood clots after surgery.

"With cow material, the risks can be reduced drastically. Patients avoid of the need the use a blood thinning drug of long-term that has side effects. Material cow have gone through a chemical process to eliminate the risk of infection, it means we can almost get the IVC without having to take another human vascular , "said Dr. Malik.

Material from cow has the same thickness, flexible and easy to cut to shape and sewn. While synthetic materials tend to be more rigid. In addition, material from cow will grow become part of body the patient and durable.

Source:  Daily Mail