Keeping Human Organs Alive Longer Before Transplantation

One of the practical limitations to transplantation of organs from a recently-deceased donor to a recipient is the length of time that human organs remain viable outside a human body. Even if the organ is immediately cooled on ice, it's only a matter of hours before it is no longer considered healthy enough for transplantation. Sometimes it would take too long to transport the organ from where it is harvested to where it is needed, even if pilots and planes were standing by to transport it.

That may be about to change. Several companies (OrganOx and Transmedics) are working to extend the time during which human organs can be kept alive outside the body for up to a full day. This is being accomplished not by cooling the organ, but by keeping it warm and perfused with blood throughout storage and transport so that the organ's metabolic requirements are met and it can continue to function. The techniques require some expensive equipment (much more expensive than just a cooler of ice!), but if lives can be saved the extra cost may just be worth it.

And if we are allowed to dream, if the time of organ storage outside a human body could be extended to weeks or even months, it might be possible to establish human organ banks in some distant future!