The second patient to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig, a 54-year-old New Jersey woman who lived with the organ for 47 days, died Sunday, surgeons at New York University Langone Medical Center announced Tuesday.
The patient, Lisa Pisano, was suffering from kidney and heart failure and was in critical condition when she received a pig kidney on April 12, just eight days after being implanted with a mechanical heart pump.
Inadequate blood flow related to the heart pumping damaged the kidney, forcing surgeons to remove it on May 29. After the removal, Pisano resumed kidney dialysis but eventually moved into hospice care.
Pisano made medical history as the first person to receive an organ transplant while also being fitted with a heart pump – patients with kidney failure usually cannot be fitted with a heart pump because of their high risk of death.
Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the New York University Langone Transplant Institute, said Pisano had made major contributions to the emerging field of xenotransplantation, or the transplantation of organs from one species to another.
“Lisa's contributions to medicine, surgery and xenotransplantation cannot be overstated,” Dr. Montgomery said. “Her courage has given hope to thousands of people living with end-stage renal and heart failure who may soon benefit from a replacement organ supply.”
The first patient to receive a kidney from a genetically modified pig was 62-year-old Richard Sulaiman, who underwent surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital Brigham in Boston in March. Though he recovered well enough to be discharged from the hospital two weeks after the operation, like Pisano, he suffered complications from several health problems and died within two months.
While the field of xenotransplantation has made great strides in recent years, the procedure is still experimental, and only patients who are too seriously ill to qualify for a human organ and who are at risk of dying without treatment are approved for animal organ transplants.
The two kidney transplants from genetically modified pigs this year were approved under the Food and Drug Administration's compassionate use, or expanded access, program for patients with life-threatening conditions.