Transplantation Of Organs Foreseen

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30103, 10 April 1963, Page 15

Transplantation Of Organs Foreseen

(N.Z Press Association —Copyright) LA JOLLA (California), April 9. The replacement of sick or damaged body parts with healthy organs is only a step a wav, according to a young surgeon, the Associated Press reported.

Dr. Richard C. Lillehei. aged 35. of the University of Minnesota medical school, said yesterday that surgeons now were able out and reimplant virtually every Organ except the brain itself The toughest hurdle was finding ways around the human body's defence mechanism compelling it to reject most borrowed tissue. Dr. Lillehei predicted that would be accomplished in time. Success With Dogs

He reported success in removing, m storing for a time, and then putting stomachs, intestines and spleens back into the same individual dogs.

Kidneys, livers, lungs, hearts and glands have been transplanted in the same way In technical ability surgeons were ready to go once the "allergic” road block was solved, he told an American Cancer Society seminar for science writers

Healthy organs could be borrowed from people killed in accidents, or dying from diseases which did not affect organs that someone else needed.

The research also pointed to possible new ways of treating or preventing stomach ulcers, ulcerative colitis, and le-thal radiation sickness. Dr. Lillehei said Nerve Lines Cut When a stomach was removed and reimplanted, all nerve lines were cut But the dog’s stomach not only functioned normally, it also became highly resistant to

ulcers Excess acids secreted under nervous tension were blamed as a Cause of human ulcers

It might be possible merely to seVer all the nerve wirings to the stomach to treat or cure ulcer patients rather than taking the stomach out and putting it back in, he said