CLEVELAND -- Surgeons in Cleveland say they have performed the nation's first
uterus transplant, a new frontier that aims to give women who lack wombs a
chance at pregnancy.In a
statement Thursday, the Cleveland Clinic said the nine-hour surgery was performed
a day earlier on a 26-year-old woman, using a uterus from a deceased donor.The hospital
had long been planning for such a surgery, announcing last fall a clinical
trial that would attempt 10 transplants in women with what's called uterine
factor infertility (UFI), meaning they were born without a uterus or with
uterine abnormalities that block pregnancy.
"Women
who are coping with UFI have few existing options," Dr. Tommaso Falcone,
Chair of the Women's Health Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a post
on the clinic's website in November. "Although adoption and surrogacy
provide opportunities for parenthood, both pose logistical challenges and may
not be acceptable due to personal, cultural or legal reasons."The hospital
said it wouldn't release any more details until a press conference next week,
except to say the woman's condition was stable.
Other
countries have tried womb transplants -- Sweden
reported the first successful birth in 2014, with a total of five
healthy babies so far. Doctors there say the still experimental treatment might
be an alternative for some of the thousands of women unable to have children
because they were born without a uterus or lost it to disease.Others have questioned
whether such an extreme step would be a realistic option for many women. It's
fraught with medical risk, including rejection of the transplant and having to
take potent immune-suppressing drugs for a transplant that, unlike patients who
receive a donated kidney or heart, isn't life-saving.
The Cleveland Clinic's Dr.
Andreas Tzakis said the risks aren't greater than those for other transplants
but is considered life-enhancing, like transplants of the face or hand.One important difference:
"Unlike any other transplants, they are 'ephemeral,'" Tzakis said
last year in a statement announcing the study. "They are not intended to
last for the duration of the recipient's life, but will be maintained for only
as long as is necessary to produce one or two children."
Removing a uterus from a
deceased donor requires more than a normal hysterectomy, as the major arteries also
must be removed. The womb and blood vessels are sewn inside the recipient's
pelvis. Before closing the abdomen, surgeons check for good blood flow and that
the attachment to the ligaments is strong enough to maintain a pregnancy.If a woman is approved for
a transplant in the study, she would first have to have eggs removed from her
ovaries, like is done for in vitro fertilization, and then freeze the embryos.
Those could be implanted only 12 months after the transplant heals, if it's
successful.
credit to CBS Interactive Inc.
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