Surgeons Transplant New Trachea Into Child Using His Own Stem Cells to Rebuild Airway

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2010) — UCL scientists and surgeons have led a revolutionary operation to transplant a new trachea into a child, using the child's own stem cells to rebuild the airway in the body.

The operation -- a world first -- involved laboratory-based scientists and hospital-based clinicians working in partnership with colleagues in Europe to treat a 10-year-old British boy.
The boy, who has not been named, is recovering from surgery but his condition is stable and he is breathing unaided.

He was born with a rare condition called Long Segment Tracheal Stenosis -- a tiny windpipe that does not grow and restricts breathing.

Shortly after birth, he underwent a conventional trachea transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), but his condition deteriorated last November when a metal stent implanted in that operation began to erode into the aorta, a key artery, causing severe bleeding.

Scientists and surgeons at UCL, GOSH, the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, and the Careggi University Hospital in Florence, Italy, developed a new technique to treat the life-threatening condition.
They stripped cells from a donated trachea, used it to replace the entire length of the damaged airway, and then used the child's own bone marrow stem cells to seal the airway in the body.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325114400.htm

[zanana1]

1. It takes alot for a 58 year-old woman to say "awesome"...

But this is one of those times. It gives me hope.

[FLyellowdog]

2. This is absolutely mindboggling!

Over 40 years ago my daughter was born with what turned out to be a tracheal stenosis. It manefested itself at 4 weeks. Since we were in the Navy at the time, she got excellent care...a tracheotomy at 6 weeks and five months in Portsmouth Naval hospital. We took her home and cared for her ourselves (what did we as young kids know?). Plans were to wait until she was 3 years old to replace trachea with artificial one, but at 15 months, her trachea began to grow and she no longer required the tracheotomy. She is a beautiful, successful business woman, wife, and mother today. I'm so glad medical science is making such great strides. Yay for stem cell research.:bounce: