UA Surgeons Perform Arizona-s First Intestine Transplant
Arizona Free Press
← Back to
Science and Technology
By Jo Gellerman, Arizona Health Sciences Center
A three-member surgeon team successfully completed the first intestine transplant in the state of Arizona. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Health Sciences Center
The patient who received the first intestine transplant using a living donor in the entire Southwest is recuperating at University Medical Center.
Surgeons at The University of Arizona Department of Surgery performed Arizonas first intestine (bowel) transplant April 30 in a successful nine-hour procedure at University Medical Center.
The procedure also was the first intestine transplant using a living donor in the entire Southwest. The patient, Leslie Richter, a 44-year-old woman from Rio Rico, is recuperating at the hospital.
This feat comes five months after UA surgeons at University Medical Center performed a record 100th abdominal transplant of 2008.
Richter became ill last year when she developed a potentially fatal condition that twisted her intestine, completely blocking the blood flow and destroying the organ. Except for five inches, almost all of her intestine had to be surgically removed.
We are thrilled to bring this important life-saving procedure to our area, said John Renz, a UA professor of surgery and vice chief of Abdominal Transplantation.
A strong transplant program ensures that patients in the Southwest in need of a transplant receive world-class care. The commitment to saving lives through donation and transplantation is unparalleled and we are proud to be able to help patients like Mrs. Richter, said Renz, a member of the team that performed the first surgery.
According to the national Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, 55 intestine-only transplants were performed in the United States last year, and 234 people in the United States currently are waiting for an intestine-only transplant.
The small intestine is a tube between the stomach and the large intestine that helps the body digest and absorb the fluids and nutrients in food. When the small intestine is substantially shortened, people suffer from severe dehydration and malnourishment and require total parenteral nutrition, or TPN, receiving all nutrients through an intravenous line.
Mrs. Richter underwent this life-saving bowel transplant before she could develop liver failure in which case she would have required a combined intestine and liver transplant, said Rainer Gruessner, the intestine transplant surgical team led.
However, many patients never get transplanted because of the scarcity of decease donor livers, said Gruessner, who chairs the UA Department of Surgery and standardized the technique of living donor intestinal transplant. We encourage patients on TPN to contact us before they develop liver failure so that they can undergo an intestine transplant in time.ÂÂÂ
Richters quality of life and long-term survival looked bleak. People on long-term TPN are at risk of developing liver failure and infections, complications that are life-threatening. Her only alternative was an intestine transplant.
An intestine transplant replaces a patients surgically removed or diseased small intestine with one from either a living or deceased donor. Such transplants are life-saving, yet rare; they are available at only a handful of U.S. medical centers.
Even more rare are living donor intestine transplants, whose benefits for the recipient include no wait list time, the ability to plan for surgery under optimal circumstances, and a potentially longer graft survival time. Studies of living donor kidney transplants have shown that living donor organs seem to last twice as long as deceased donor organs.
Told that a healthy person can live comfortably with only one-fourth to one-third of the normal length of small intestine, provided that the large intestine remains intact.
Richters sister, Michelle Teran, volunteered to give a portion of hers. Their blood cell and tissue types were a good match, reducing the probability that the graft would be rejected.
Another key member of the team is Khalid Khan, a UA associate professor of surgery and pediatrics and a nationally renowned gastroenterologist specializing in liver and intestine transplantation.
Intestine transplants have gone from a procedure many considered improbable in the 1990s to one today that offers patients greatly improved chances of long-term survival and a better quality of life, said Dr. Khan. Having the transplant means that Mrs. Richter will be able to eventually eat food normally again. The transplant should give her her life back.ÂÂÂ
We now have the infrastructure in place at UMC to offer highly complex, life-saving organ transplants, such as intestine transplants, said Dr. Gruessner.
UMC offers the most comprehensive transplant program in the state. We regularly perform kidney, pancreas, liver, lung and heart transplants, including living donor transplants, and soon will be offering islet cell transplants.ÂÂÂ
Nance Conney, UMC director of Transplant Services added, we have the only pediatric transplant program in the Southwest.ÂÂÂ
A three-member surgeon team successfully completed the first intestine transplant in the state of Arizona. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Health Sciences Center
The patient who received the first intestine transplant using a living donor in the entire Southwest is recuperating at University Medical Center.
Surgeons at The University of Arizona Department of Surgery performed Arizonas first intestine (bowel) transplant April 30 in a successful nine-hour procedure at University Medical Center.
The procedure also was the first intestine transplant using a living donor in the entire Southwest. The patient, Leslie Richter, a 44-year-old woman from Rio Rico, is recuperating at the hospital.
This feat comes five months after UA surgeons at University Medical Center performed a record 100th abdominal transplant of 2008.
Richter became ill last year when she developed a potentially fatal condition that twisted her intestine, completely blocking the blood flow and destroying the organ. Except for five inches, almost all of her intestine had to be surgically removed.
We are thrilled to bring this important life-saving procedure to our area, said John Renz, a UA professor of surgery and vice chief of Abdominal Transplantation.
A strong transplant program ensures that patients in the Southwest in need of a transplant receive world-class care. The commitment to saving lives through donation and transplantation is unparalleled and we are proud to be able to help patients like Mrs. Richter, said Renz, a member of the team that performed the first surgery.
According to the national Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, 55 intestine-only transplants were performed in the United States last year, and 234 people in the United States currently are waiting for an intestine-only transplant.
The small intestine is a tube between the stomach and the large intestine that helps the body digest and absorb the fluids and nutrients in food. When the small intestine is substantially shortened, people suffer from severe dehydration and malnourishment and require total parenteral nutrition, or TPN, receiving all nutrients through an intravenous line.
Mrs. Richter underwent this life-saving bowel transplant before she could develop liver failure in which case she would have required a combined intestine and liver transplant, said Rainer Gruessner, the intestine transplant surgical team led.
However, many patients never get transplanted because of the scarcity of decease donor livers, said Gruessner, who chairs the UA Department of Surgery and standardized the technique of living donor intestinal transplant. We encourage patients on TPN to contact us before they develop liver failure so that they can undergo an intestine transplant in time.ÂÂÂ
Richters quality of life and long-term survival looked bleak. People on long-term TPN are at risk of developing liver failure and infections, complications that are life-threatening. Her only alternative was an intestine transplant.
An intestine transplant replaces a patients surgically removed or diseased small intestine with one from either a living or deceased donor. Such transplants are life-saving, yet rare; they are available at only a handful of U.S. medical centers.
Even more rare are living donor intestine transplants, whose benefits for the recipient include no wait list time, the ability to plan for surgery under optimal circumstances, and a potentially longer graft survival time. Studies of living donor kidney transplants have shown that living donor organs seem to last twice as long as deceased donor organs.
Told that a healthy person can live comfortably with only one-fourth to one-third of the normal length of small intestine, provided that the large intestine remains intact.
Richters sister, Michelle Teran, volunteered to give a portion of hers. Their blood cell and tissue types were a good match, reducing the probability that the graft would be rejected.
Another key member of the team is Khalid Khan, a UA associate professor of surgery and pediatrics and a nationally renowned gastroenterologist specializing in liver and intestine transplantation.
Intestine transplants have gone from a procedure many considered improbable in the 1990s to one today that offers patients greatly improved chances of long-term survival and a better quality of life, said Dr. Khan. Having the transplant means that Mrs. Richter will be able to eventually eat food normally again. The transplant should give her her life back.ÂÂÂ
We now have the infrastructure in place at UMC to offer highly complex, life-saving organ transplants, such as intestine transplants, said Dr. Gruessner.
UMC offers the most comprehensive transplant program in the state. We regularly perform kidney, pancreas, liver, lung and heart transplants, including living donor transplants, and soon will be offering islet cell transplants.ÂÂÂ
Nance Conney, UMC director of Transplant Services added, we have the only pediatric transplant program in the Southwest.ÂÂÂ