{"id":290187,"date":"2021-05-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=290187"},"modified":"2021-05-20T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T07:00:00","slug":"more-successful-liver-transplants-thanks-to-a-handheld-laser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/more-successful-liver-transplants-thanks-to-a-handheld-laser\/","title":{"rendered":"More successful liver transplants thanks to a handheld laser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the UK liver disease is the third leading cause of premature death<\/a>. In many cases, the only solution is a liver transplant. Unfortunately, patients\u2019 bodies frequently reject the transplant<\/a> and those donated livers go to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh<\/a> are developing a laser technique that can spot problems in donated livers before a transplant. Stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) is a laser that can find issues difficult for surgeons to detect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t expect to find such a clear difference in Raman signal between damaged and undamaged liver tissue,\u201d says Dr. Katherine Ember, one of the leads on the project. \u201cThis could enable liver damage to be detected early in the transplant procedure, allowing more livers to be transplanted safely and effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have their transplanted livers rejected need, at a minimum, to go back for another invasive surgery. The SRS would mean that more operations end in a successful transplant. It also means that marginal grafts \u2013 livers donated by the elderly \u2013 become less risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real time information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The real innovation of the SRS is what it replaces. The current way to test a liver is a laborious process involving biochemistry and gas analysis. Instead, the SRS simply shines a light directly on the organ. The scattered light is then collected and can give molecular information on the liver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers used the SRS on a pig liver and were able to detect bad red blood cell build up, also known as congestion. The idea would be to turn the SRS into a handheld laser for surgeons for use during transplants. Surgeons could then monitor the liver in real time and ensure that common complications are caught early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes other surgeries better<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Though the SRS still needs human testing, it shows promise. A novel use for the SRS is with a surgery known as normothermic regional perfusion (NRP). NRP uses a machine to re-establish blood circulation to donated organs after death. It means that issues like congestion do not necessarily spell the end for a donated organ. Combined with the SRS, the future is being able to detect and fix organ issues before a transplant even happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the UK liver disease is the third leading cause of premature death. In many cases, the only solution is a liver transplant. Unfortunately, patients\u2019 bodies frequently reject the transplant and those donated livers go to waste. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are developing a laser technique that can spot problems in donated livers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1932,"featured_media":524132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34665],"tags":[61507,31705,35167,61510,56638],"location":[55977],"article_type":[36684],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-290187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-dr-katherine-ember","tag-laser-en","tag-organ-donor","tag-raman-spectroscopy","tag-university-of-edinburgh","location-united-kingdom","article_type-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have developed a laser that can detect issues in donated livers before they are transplanted.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Alex Davidson","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/alex-davidson\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/human-digestive-system-163714_1280-300x169.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Dr Katherine ember<\/a>","Laser<\/a>","organ donor<\/a>","Raman spectroscopy<\/a>","University of Edinburgh<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dr Katherine ember<\/span>","Laser<\/span>","organ donor<\/span>","Raman spectroscopy<\/span>","University of Edinburgh<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 5 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 20, 2021","modified":"Updated on May 20, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 20, 2021 9:00 am","modified":"Updated on May 20, 2021 9:00 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=290187"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=290187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}