China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Living Donors, Non-Human Sources, and Cadaveric Donors
Published in David Lamb, Organ Transplants and Ethics, 2020
Of course many artificial devices are expensive and in short supply. This means waiting lists and selective rationing. The problem of allocating patients to renal dialysis programmes has been an area for ethical concern. But apart from concern over the equitable distribution of artificial organs (which does not touch on issues different from those concerning the allocation of scarce or expensive medical resources) there were no significant philosophical, religious, or moral objections to artificial implants or organ substitutes – until proposals for the artificial heart emerged.
Regeneration: Nanomaterials for Tissue Regeneration
Published in Harry F. Tibbals, Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine, 2017
Yet another approach is the engineering of artificial organs, which may or may not include living encapsulated cells, but which are designed to function as an entire replacement for complex units such as the pancreas, liver, kidney, or even the heart or eye. The design of artificial organs and artificial cells or bioreactors may be considered as a development of the prosthetics or substitutional medicine paradigm from the mechanical and neuromuscular arena into the biochemical and cell-signaling domain.
Technology and the Medical Manager
Published in J.H.U. Brown, Management in Health Care Systems, 2017
The area of artificial organs, which has generated a good deal of scientific and popular interest in the past 10 years, presents a number of mechanical and biological problems whose solutions are particularly dependent on advances in instrumentation and engineering development. The artificial heart is the subject of much attention at this time, due to its high cost to patients. Clearly, ingenuity and simplicity in instrumentation design are needed much more than complex automatic devices. In this connection, it is important to recognize that the major reason for the existence of dialysis machines is the need for a stop gap before transplantation or for preventable disease. Legislation providing major support for dialysis therapy brings this into sharp focus. A particularly intriguing and elusive problem is the matter of appropriate feedback control mechanisms when the patient is completely dependent on a prosthesis that has totally replaced his own organ.
Targeting transpulmonary pressure to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury
Published in Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine, 2019
Luciano Gattinoni, Lorenzo Giosa, Matteo Bonifazi, Iacopo Pasticci, Mattia Busana, Matteo Macri, Federica Romitti, Francesco Vassalli, Michael Quintel
Although several progresses have been made in mechanical ventilation during the last decades, primarily based on decreased tidal volume and more gentle lung ventilation, the actual indication (plateau pressure of 30 cmH2O, tidal volume 6 ml/kg) is not sufficient for best treatment of a fraction of ARDS patients [63]. Approaches as high flow or low flow extracorporeal support have been suggested for the most severe patients or as a preventive measure for lung damages in less severe populations [64]. We believe, however, that a rational approach to mechanical ventilation would require 1) the measure of the distending pressure of the lung (transpulmonary pressure), 2) the measure of lung volume and its homogeneity, 3) a definition of a safety threshold for transpulmonary pressure, integrated into the mechanical power framework. The use of artificial organs would be rationale and appropriate only when the above conditions are satisfied.
Prolongation of liver-specific function for primary hepatocytes maintenance in 3D printed architectures
Published in Organogenesis, 2018
Yohan Kim, Kyojin Kang, Sangtae Yoon, Ji Sook Kim, Su A. Park, Wan Doo Kim, Seung Bum Lee, Ki-Young Ryu, Jaemin Jeong, Dongho Choi
Artificial organ transplantation is an outstanding recent challenge in medicine as liver transplantation is deemed the best therapeutic method for severe liver diseases. However, most transplant patients die due to surgical complications, donor organ shortage and rejection risk.1,2 To resolve this, many scientists are attempting to develop artificial organs. In the case of an artificial liver, a major obstacle is the limited culture time for primary hepatocytes. After isolation for 3 days, the apoptotic pathway becomes activated in primary hepatocytes and they differentiate into fibrotic cells.3 For this reason, increasing the culture time for primary hepatocytes is a major challenge that must be overcome in order to make artificial livers.
OrganEx: What Will It Mean?
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2022
None of this means OrganEx will not lead to a substantial and important increase in transplantable organs. And in a world where many die waiting on organ transplant lists, it is ethically important to investigate methods that might increase organ supply. OrganEx is one, but so are xenotransplants, artificial organs, stem-cell derived organs, and, importantly, non-technical methods of increasing organs availability, such as changing incentives. OrganEx may be a “game changer”—or not. To evaluate that better will require much more research about OrganEx but also a close examination of the realities of the organ transplant process.