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Saturday April 27, 2024

US surgeons perform first pig-to-human kidney transplant

The patient is recovering well and expected to be discharged soon, the hospital said

By REUTERS
March 22, 2024
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital performing the worlds pig kidney transplant into a living human.—AFP/File
Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital performing the world's pig kidney transplant into a living human.—AFP/File 

WASHINGTON: A 62-year-man with end-stage renal disease has become the first human to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced on Thursday.

The four-hour surgery, performed on March 16, “marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,” the hospital said in a statement.

The patient, Richard Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and expected to be discharged soon, the hospital said.

Slayman had received a transplant of a human kidney at the same hospital in 2018 after seven years on dialysis.