This first successful attempt at a heart transplant after 12 hours of graft preservation is one of the most telling illustrations of the prospects offered by this PEGASE program. Until then, the optimal transport time for a removed heart was four hours.
An extended duration
Thanks to the preservation device from the company Exvivo which uses oxygenated hypothermic perfusion, this duration could be extended to 12 hours. This procedure must be further tested and its long-term feasibility studied, because this transfer between the Antilles and France was made possible thanks to the particular mobilization of regulators from the Biomedicine Agency and exceptional coordination of the sampling teams. of transplants and teams from the Guadeloupe and Martinique University Hospitals in order to organize particularly complex logistics in real time.
A breakthrough for West Indian patients
Currently, Guyanese Antilles patients waiting for a transplant must travel to France to have an operation. And potential heart grafts from these departments are not taken due to lack of being able to transplant them locally or transport them due to the transport time considered too long. With this PEGASE study, which will include 20 patients, this reality could evolve and open up new perspectives on transplantation procedures, particularly in isolated or distant centers such as the Antilles, and increase the number of grafts available.
