There have been 50 face transplants performed in 11 countries since the surgery was pioneered back in 2005, and long-term outcomes have been favorable, a new review finds.

In total, 85% of people receiving these complex surgeries survived five years and 74% were still alive a decade after transplant completion, researchers report.

When the numbers focused on deaths linked to the tra...

Key Takeaways

• The recipient of the world’s first combined whole-eye and partial face transplant is doing well more than a year out from his groundbreaking surgery, NYU Langone doctors report.

  Aaron James, a 46-year-old military veteran from Arkansas, says over the past year his new face has allowed him to enjoy things others take for granted.

  N...

Uterine transplants are relatively rare and recent -- the first was performed in 2011, and to date a little more than 100 transplants have been conducted worldwide.

However, a new study finds that these procedures are often successful, leading to pregnancies and live births in 14 out of the 20 patients assessed.

"A successfully transplanted uterus is capable of functioning at least ...

The U.S. heart transplant list for children isn’t accurately ranking the sickest kids highest, making it more likely they may die while waiting for a donor heart, a new study claims.

Some very sick children were categorized as category 2, the lowest of the three categories of urgency on the list, while others who were not as sick had a 1A “most urgent” status, researche...

The second person to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig has died, surgeons at NYU Langone Health announced Tuesday.

The 54-year-old patient, Lisa Pisano, had both kidney failure and heart failure. She received the pig kidney April 12, eight days after she had a mechanical ...

For years, Marty Kedian had been without a voice.

Kedian, who hails from Haverhill, Mass., has undergone dozens of surgeries while being treated for a rare form of laryngeal cancer.

As a result, he was robbed of his voice -- along with the ability to swallow and breathe normally.

"I was alive, but I wasn't living," Kedian said. "I love to talk to people everywhere I go, and I ...

People with an "unhealthy"gut microbiome appear to be more likely to die following an organ transplant, a new study warns.

These gut microbe patterns are specifically associated with deaths from cancer and infection, regardless of the organ that's been transplanted, res...

John Nicolas was deep into kidney transplant surgery when he decided to ask his doctors if they'd started yet.

"At one point during surgery, I recall asking, 'Should I be expecting the spinal anesthesia to kick in?'"Nicolas, 28, recalled in a news release. "They had already been doing a lot of work and I had been completely oblivious to that fact. Truly, no sensation whatsoever."

Ni...

A woman who was the second person to ever receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig has had the transplanted organ removed due to complications linked to a heart pump she is using, her doctors said.

Lisa Pisano, 54, remains hospitalized and has been transferred back to kidney dialysis after having the transplanted organ removed.

The organ, transplanted 47 days earlier, had n...

Chicago resident Arthur "Art"Gillespie fell ill in early March 2020 with COVID, after he and his father went to visit an uncle in a nursing facility.

"I was hospitalized for 12 days with a high fever and cough, and during that time, they were taking scans of my lungs, which showed stage 1 lung cancer on my right lung,"Gillespie, 56, recalled in a news release. "I had no symptoms of lung c...

Rick Slayman, the first person to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig, has died nearly two months after having the historic surgery.

In a statement released Saturday, Slayman's family said the...

A small, implantable heart pump could help children await heart transplants at home rather than languishing in a hospital, according to a new study.

The pump is surgically attached to augment the heart's blood-pumping action, giving more time to find a donor heart, researchers said.

The pump worked well for seven children participating in a small-scale early trial of the device.

New Jersey native Lisa Pisano was staring down the end of her days.

The 54-year-old had heart failure and end-stage kidney disease, but several chronic medical conditions excluded her as a candidate for heart and kidney transplants.

"All I want is the opportunity to have a better ...

Rick Slayman, the first person to receive a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig, headed home Wednesday after faring so well that he was released from the hospital just two weeks after his groundbreaking surgery.

"This moment -- leaving the hospital today with one of the cleanest bills of health I've had in a long time -- is one I wished would come for many years. Now, it's ...

Dr. Gary Gibbon didn't have long to live.

A harsh cocktail of chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy for his advanced lung cancer had permanently destroyed his lungs and caused irreparable damage to his liver.

But Gibbon, a 69-year-old resident of Santa Monica,...

The odds in the United States that a well-functioning donor heart will go to a Black man are lower than for white transplant candidates of either gender, new research shows.

The news is troubling, since "Black patients have a two to three times greater risk of developing

THURSDAY, March 21, 2024 (HealthDay news) -- For the first time ever, doctors have transplanted a genetically edited pig kidney into a human suffering from advanced kidney failure.

Such pig kidneys, altered to lower the risk of rejection and disease, have been successfully placed into monkeys and brain-dead human donor bodies.

But Rick Slayman, 62, is the first living patient to rec...

Researchers hope findings from a new study of liver transplant patients will lead to improved interventions for those from racial and ethnic minority groups.

The study -- led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas -- found the risk of dying while waiting for a liver transplant was higher among patients from four minority groups. Their risk for a failed transplant was a...

Weight-loss surgery may help patients struggling with obesity and kidney failure become eligible for a lifesaving transplant, researchers report.

Obesity is a key reason why some kidney patients are turned down for a transplant.

But weight-loss surgery "not only helps in reducing the patients' weight to a level where they can safely receive a transplant, but also addresses the broad...

A technique doctors use to preserve donated organs is actually doing no good, and might even be harming the organs, a new study reports.

Physicians routinely dose deceased organ donors with thyroid hormones, in a bid to preserve heart function and keep the donors' organs healthy and viable.

But thyroid hormone treatment made no significant difference in the number of hearts successf...

An Arkansas man maimed by a massive electrical shock to his face has successfully received the world's first whole-eye and partial face transplant.

In a 21-hour surgery performed in May, a NYU Langone Health surgical team transplanted an entire left eye and the portion of a face from a single donor onto Aaron James, a 46-year-old military veteran from Arkansas who survived a work-related,...

"Davey"Bauer hovered on the precipice of death, his lungs damaged by vaping and congested by antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Doctors saved his life with a jury-rigged artificial lung, a prompt double-lung transplant"¦ and a set of DD breast implants.

Doctors at Northwestern Medicine crafted an artificial lung to keep Bauer, 34, alive after removing lungs so heavily infected that "t...

The second person to ever receive a transplanted pig heart has died.

Lawrence Faucette, 58, got the transplant just six weeks earlier at the University of Maryland Medical Center in an experimental procedure.

Unfortunately, the heart had been showing signs of rejection in the days before his death, CNN reported.