Woman Becomes First Person to Receive Both Pig Kidney Transplant and Heart Pump
A woman with life-threatening heart and kidney disease became the second person ever to receive a genetically modified pig kidney and the first person to receive a heart pump and a transplanted organ together
Robert Montgomery, professor and chair of the department of surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, prepares the surgical site for xenotransplantation surgery for Lisa Pisano on April 12, 2024.
Joe Carrotta for NYU Langone Health
People with heart failure may be eligible to receive a heart transplant; people with kidney failure may be lucky enough to receive a kidney transplant. But for many people with both heart and kidney disease—who may be ineligible to be listed for a transplant or cannot receive both organs in time—options are extremely limited.
Scientists at NYU Langone Health in New York City, however, have now completed a first-of-its-kind procedure involving surgery to install a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), or mechanical heart pump, followed by transplantation of a genetically modified pig kidney. It is the first time someone with an LVAD has received a transplant of any kind (except for a heart transplant to replace the device) and only the second time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person.
The achievement creates a potential avenue for treating people with both heart and kidney disease. “Our success in this one patient is going to open up a lot of possibilities for the thousands of patients out there who have some combination of problems with the heart and the kidney,” says Nader Moazami, chief of the division of heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who performed the LVAD surgery.
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