Artificial Liver Extends Lives
Reported March 18, 2009
NEW YORK (Ivanhoe Newswire) — There’s help for failing kidneys and hearts — but there’s no fix for dying livers. More than 27,000 people die every year from liver disease and fewer than 6,000 liver transplants are performed. Doctors are now testing an artificial liver that bridges that gap and gives patients another chance at survival.
Elizabeth Blaj knows what it’s like to be close to death
“They didn’t think I’d make it through the night,” Blaj told Ivanhoe.
Time was running out.
“They told me, you know what, maybe two days is what we have to find you a liver,” she added.
For the past ten years, Blaj has been dealing with problems with her liver. An infection almost took her life.
“It had already shut down my kidneys,” Blaj said. “My liver had shut down and basically I had a heart attack. That was the pain in my back. They thought I was toast that very day.”
liverThat’s when doctors turned to an artificial liver, or ELAD, to keep her alive. It works like a dialysis, cleaning toxins out of plasma.
“The assumption is that it will provide temporary liver support while either their liver gets better or as a bridge to a transplant,” Robert S. Brown, Jr., M.D.,
Frank Cardile Professor or Medicine and Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, told Ivanhoe.
Before the plasma is returned, it filters through cells in the ELAD taken from a liver tumor. They help in detoxifying, blood-clotting and metabolism.
“These liver cells can grow on plastic and can be easily stored and transported and they grow very, very dense,” Dr. Brown said.
The ELAD system kept Blaj alive for five days — enough time to find a donor liver.
“It bought me time,” Blaj said. “Five days was like an eternity.”
Now, she’s living a whole new life
liver”I have told people it’s like living in a fog and having that fog lifted,” Blaj added.
A person’s chances of dying on the waiting list for a donor liver are higher than the chances of dying on the artificial liver. Dr. Brown has kept patients on the machine for up to 10 days.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Research Office
(212) 305-3839