• Question: When you have an organ transplant, do you cut out the old one and put in the new one? Or is it more complicated?

    Asked by georgiame98 to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 15 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Im not a surgeon, but as far as I know yeah that’s pretty much it! You have to remove the old organ, cut off all it’s blood vessels and make sure that they are in a good condition to attach the new organ to it. It’s so important that the blood supply to the new organ is good, so that it keeps the tissue healthy. I suppose it’s just the same as putting in a new sink in your kitchen – you need to keep all the plumbing there, and attach it to the new sink!

      I think with transplants, the hardest thing is making sure that the patient does not reject the transplanted organ after receiving it, not the operation bit itself. Patients are put on very strong medication to stop their fighter cells attacking the organ and trying to get rid of it because they see it as “foreign”.

    • Photo: Phil Rice

      Phil Rice answered on 18 Mar 2013:

      This depends on which organ is being transplanted. If it’s a kidney, the old one is left in (because the operation to remove a kidney is more difficult than to put a new one in). For heart, liver and lungs, the diseased organs are removed as the plumbing would be impossible otherwise. Bone marrow transplants are just done by transfusing the donor bone marrow cells into your body through a large vein.

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