Double lung transplant surgery, carried out in 2007
at the Department of thoracic surgery, Foch hospital, Suresnes, France (Image: Foch/Phanie/Rex Features)
IN THE not too distant future, a person in need of a heart transplant could be offered a pig’s organ. That’s the hope of a group that met in China last week to agree global guidelines for the first clinical trials of “xenotransplants”.
The meeting of clinicians, researchers and regulators in Changsha, Hunan province, which was organised by the World Health Organization, resulted in the so-called Changsha Communiqué – a document that should eventually guide global regulation of xenotransplants.
It…
