With a tiny chip-based sensor and 30 minutes of time, surgeons could evaluate a lung destined for transplantation and predict whether that donated organ is likely to fail or whether it will save a life.
In lung transplant surgery, the clock is ticking. Once surgeons remove the donor lung they have about 7 hours before it’s too damaged to be used, and transplant teams often rush the organ via helicopter to the hospital where a desperate recipient is waiting. People who need lung transplants are typically in the final stages of a lung disease such as emphysema or cystic fibrosis, and have exhausted all other treatment options.
Sometimes, despite the doctors’ best efforts, the transplanted lung begins to malfunction in the recipient’s body. This disorder, called primary graft dysfunction, is the leading cause of death for patients in the immediate aftermath of surgery.
The new sensor can predict, before transplantation, which donated lungs will malfunction. Biomedical engineer Shana Kelley and her colleagues at the University of Toronto created a tiny electrochemical device that detects several biomarkers associated with graft dysfunction, and can do so within half an hour. The researchers describe the experimental device in the journal Science.
