Artists generally like to sign their work. Painters, sculptors, poets, all leave their name as a mark of pride. But when your brush is a scalpel and your canvas is the human body, it’s probably best to avoid that urge. One British surgeon is finding that out, after being suspended for branding his initials on a patient’s liver. These ain’t cattle, doc!
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Liver surgery is more than a little dangerous — with so many blood vessels, one wrong cut can lead to disaster. Fraunhofer MEVIS has just tested a new generation of augmented reality iPad app that could minimize those risks. The tool puts a 3D vessel map on top of live video of a patient, telling the surgeon where it’s safe to make incisions. Doctors who do need to cut vessels can predict the level of blood loss and remove affected vessels from the map. The trial was successful enough that Fraunhofer MEVIS sees the new technology applying to surgery elsewhere in the body. If all goes well, there should be fewer accidents during tricky operations of many kinds — a big relief for those of us going under the knife.
[Thanks, Urban]
Source: Fraunhofer MEVIS
Stem cell research has resulted in several important breakthroughs in medicine, such as rebuilding the larynx and regenerating spinal cord connectors. Now the liver, one of the most highly sought after organs on the donor transplant list, could get some serious stem cell assistance as well. A team of scientists led by Takanori Takebe of Yokohama City University has successfully created a miniature version of the human liver with the help of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which are derived from adult somatic cells. They developed the iPSC into generalized liver cells called hepatocytes, at which point the researchers mixed in endothelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells, left the petri dishes alone for a couple days, and voila — an extremely tiny version of a human liver, said to be the first-ever functional human organ grown from stem cells, was born.
The liver “buds,” as they’re known, measure five millimeters long and are the sort you would find in human embryos shortly after fertilization. When implanted in mice, the baby livers managed to perform all the functions of their adult equivalents. The researchers’ next step would be to generate liver buds that are a touch closer to normal liver tissue — like the addition of bile ducts — and to see if they can mass produce them by the tens of thousands. Don’t go wasting your liver just yet though, as it’ll likely be years before the likes of you and me will be able to have a lab-grown liver in our bodies. In the meantime, check out the time-lapse video after the break to see a young liver bud take shape in a petri dish.
Via: Smithsonian
Source: Nature
Liver transplantation has become a victim of its own success with far more recipients registered to waiting lists—roughly 30,000 in the US and Europe—than there are available donor organs. What’s more, a staggering 2,000 viable livers must be discarded annually because they didn’t survive the journey from donor to recipient. However, this new organ transporter will keep livers warm, oxygenated, and active during its trip, potentially saving thousands of lives yearly. More »
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