A man has had a pig kidney successfully transplanted into him for nine months while he awaited a human kidney.
Doctors are hailing the procedure as a world-first as a “bridge” organ as millions around the world are on transplant waiting lists to get human organs.
Tim Andrews, who had end-stage kidney disease, was 66 when he received the genetically modified pig kidney in the US last year. He then lived successfully with the genetically edited organ for 271 days without dialysis before getting a donor human kidney.
Researchers from Mass General Brigham hospitals groups said this is the longest dialysis-free survival following a pig kidney transplant and the first transition from pig to human kidney transplantation.
