A 62-year-man with end-stage renal disease has become the first human to receive a new kidney from a genetically modified pig, doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston announced on Thursday.
The four-hour surgery, performed on March 16, “marks a major milestone in the quest to provide more readily available organs to patients,” the hospital said in a statement.
The patient, Richard Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and expected to be discharged soon, the hospital said.
Experts are keenly interested in long-term results of the groundbreaking animal-to-human transplant, said Dr. Jim Kim, director of kidney and pancreas transplantation with USC Transplant Institute in Los Angeles.