OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM — Preserving livers in warm storage similar to body temperature rather than cold storage improves transplant success a clinical trial has found.
Transplant livers are normally kept prior to surgery, however many become damaged and unusable as a result, according to the BBC. The findings were published on April 18 in the journal Nature.
For the study, researchers kept donated livers "alive" in a perfusion machine, pumping the organs with blood, nutrients and medicines.
The trial involved 222 liver transplants at seven European medical centers. It looked at cold transplants versus warm livers connected to a perfusion machine.
The participants were randomly picked to receive a liver warm liver or one preserved on ice.
The scientists found 50 percent less tissue damage in the warm livers. They also found that warm livers had a higher transplant success compared to cold ones.
Only 16 out of 137 warm livers had to be discarded, compared to 32 out of 133 cold ones.
Researchers hope the study can help reduce the number of people that die waiting for transplants each year.
