Organ+Transplants

Y10 Science Global Issues Organ transplants

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 * Organ transplantation** is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be re-grown from the patient's own cells (stem cells, or cells extracted from the failing organs).

Organs that can be transplanted are the [|heart], [|kidneys], eyes, [|liver], [|lungs], [|pancreas], [|intestine], [|and thymus]. Tissues include bones, tendons (both referred to as musculoskeletal grafts), cornea, skin, heart valves, and veins. Worldwide, the kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed closely by the liver and then the heart. Organ donors may be living, or [|brain dead]. Tissue may be recovered from donors who are cardiac dead – up to 24 hours past the cessation of heartbeat. A particular problem is [|organ trafficking].[|[][|3][|]] Some organs, such as the brain, cannot be transplanted. []

In many cases, patients with severe organ failure reach the point where they need to consider organ transplant surgery. An organ transplant is a life-saving procedure, but receiving a new organ is a process, and it can be complicated. Once your physician has made the diagnosis of organ failure, he will need to refer you to an organ transplant center, a medical facility that performs the type of transplant that you require. Transplant centers vary in what types of organ transplants they perform, so the closest center may not be the center to which you are referred. []