Organ Recovery Systems (ORS) is commemorating the first liver transplants performed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and Rutgers Medical School in New Jersey using the LifePort Liver Transporter (LLT) and Vasosol®. LLT reduces organ deterioration during preservation using oxygenated hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP), which improves patient outcomes and increases the use of life-saving organs. This significant event occurred as part of the FDA-approved Continued Access study that confirmed the outcomes of the pivotal efficacy trial known as PILOT that was carried out over the course of the previous two years under a US FDA Investigational Device Exemption.
Approximately 11,000 Americans are awaiting liver transplants right now. Static cold storage, which restricts the amount of time and space an organ can travel to the transplant clinic where it will be used, has been the standard preservation technique for donated organs. Contrarily, LLT constantly infuses a donor liver with a physiological, oxygenated, nutrient-rich cold solution that maintains the organ’s health throughout preservation, possibly permitting contributions over greater distances and extending the time the organ is viable for transplant. The multi-center PILOT trial’s findings, which were presented at the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) Industry Colloquium in 2022, demonstrated that shorter hospital stays for patients and fewer medical problems improved graft performance and patient survival.
“Organ transplant involves a diverse team of people who are passionate about healthcare yet often find they must rush to deliver organs during their limited viability window. And that’s typically the case, even with the healthiest of donor organs”, “From the promising clinical evidence we’ve seen thus far, use of LLT makes the process easier on everyone involved, which gives patients on the waiting list a better chance of receiving a second chance at life.”
David Kravitz, CEO, ORS.
At University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, the first livers preserved with the LLT under Continued Access were transplanted. The Rutgers New Jersey Medical School study is the beginning of a larger initiative to examine the advantages of incorporating LLT into current transplant programmes at involved medical centers.
“I am extremely excited to finally be able to use oxygenated HMP for my patients as a targeted intervention to improve logistics, outcomes, and access to transplant by safely facilitating the use of Extended Criteria and DCD livers.”
Dr. James V. Guarrera, Professor of Surgery and Chief of Transplant and HPB Surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Program Director at UH Liver Transplant.
