Groundbreaking surgery at UCK WUM. Transplantologists used equipment that is revolutionizing heart transplantation

The heart using the innovative system was transplanted to the patient, Mr. Jerzy, who had been in serious condition for more than seven weeks at the UCK WUM Central Clinical Hospital on Banacha Street. The operation went successfully. After more than a month, the patient is feeling very well.

- Since I woke up from the anesthesia, every day has brought a very big, visible improvement. I feel very good and am independent," says Mr. George.

The donor was a person who fell from a height of the 9th floor. After being retrieved from the donor, the heart was outside the human body, in the OCS Heart apparatus, for about 7 hours. This allowed doctors not only to safely transport and prepare the organ for transplantation, but also to evaluate its function.

- My team's use of this innovative equipment makes it possible to transplant hearts in patients currently excluded, such as those with congenital heart defects, after multiple palliative surgeries in childhood. These are young adults around 18-30 years old, whose hearts that have been operated on multiple times are coming to the end of their course. Transplantation in these patients always exceeds 4 hours. The use of the procedure significantly improves outcomes in high-risk groups, such as recipients on artificial ventricular support, and the results of repeat transplants. Thanks to the system, we can obtain better results from standard transplants, as the length of the patient's stay in the Intensive Care Unit is reduced and there is less rejection of the transplanted organ. Better donor selection in terms of tissue and HLA is also possible," says Prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk, head of the Department of Heart, Thoracic and Transplant Surgery at UCK WUM.

Prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk stresses that the possibility of using the system increases the pool of suboptimal donors, such as the elderly or those with borderline failing hearts, as it allows transplantologists to evaluate the heart and make an adequate decision to implant or give up, and expands the donor pool to include those with confirmed death on the spot or after ineffective resuscitation. Implantation can occur even after a heart has been in cardiac arrest for 30 minutes and is revived and nourished in OCS.

Cardiac surgeons Prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk and Dr. Zygmunt Kalicinski about five years ago faced the problem of heart transplantation in patients operated on repeatedly in their youth for congenital heart defects, most often a univentricular heart, in whom the only chance to save their lives is transplantation of this organ.

Unfortunately, this type of transplantation requires a great deal of preparation, and during the operation it is necessary to recreate the anatomical conditions when implanting a new, normal heart in place of a univentricular heart. Such a transplantation requires more time than in a normal transplantation.

Wanting to save their patients, Prof. Mariusz Kusmierczyk and Dr. Zygmunt Kalicinski, looked for a solution to the limitations they were facing, and learned about an American piece of equipment that offers the possibility of extending heart transport time threefold - up to 12 hours. The apparatus was already being used successfully in many European countries. This was the solution the doctors were looking for.

The system proved to be extremely expensive. Thus, the "12 Hours for Life" collection program was created and launched under the aegis of Dr. Zygmunt Kalicinski's "Leave Your Heart on Earth" Foundation for Transplantation, which was already in operation. The Foundation, among other things, promoted the idea of transplantation and conscious donation by organizing concerts, including the band HLA4transplant, in which Dr. Zygmunt Kalicinski plays drums.

- We dream of a concert like Live Aid, in which all the rock bands in Poland would play for transplantation. Perhaps in the future this will come true. We have talked to Stołeczna Estrada," says Dr. Zygmunt Kalicinski.

Thanks to the commitment of doctors, artists and donors, in December 2023 the equipment was purchased and, in the form of a donation from the Foundation for Transplantation, given to the WUM University Clinical Center.

- Our goal is not to boast about our successes, but to promote the idea of organ transplantation, which for many people is the only chance for life. The story of Mr. Jerzy is the story of a man who got a new life," stresses Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, rector of the Warsaw Medical University.