A New Machine Keeps Donor Livers Alive for a Week Instead of Hours

At any given time, thousands of people in America are waiting for a liver transplant.  But this could help with that backlog in a major way . . .

A team of engineers in Switzerland just unveiled a new machine they built that can keep a donated liver alive outside the body for up to a WEEK.

Until now, livers could only survive up to 12 hours.  So it means we might be able to do a lot more transplants.

It works by mimicking things like circulation, blood filtering, and body temperature.  And it pumps oxygen-rich blood through the liver while filtering it with a dialysis machine.

This part could be groundbreaking too:  Apparently it can also take livers that are already too old for transplant and help revive them.

They tried it with 10 livers that were deemed too old for transplant.  And after a week in the machine, six of them were fully functional again.

(Interesting Engineering / Science Daily)

(Here’s what the machine looks like.)