Surgery Godfather
Chapter 750 - 669: Cross-Blood Type Heart Transplant

Chapter 750: Chapter 669: Cross-Blood Type Heart Transplant

Yang Ping dropped off his wife at the entrance of Sanbo Hospital and then drove to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One.

He is quite familiar with Nandu Affiliated Hospital One. After parking his car, he called Professor Yao, who immediately came downstairs to greet Yang Ping.

The organ transplant center at Nandu Affiliated Hospital has a high reputation because of Professor Yao’s ischemia-free transplant techniques.

Professor Yao took Yang Ping to the doctors’ office. Most doctors there were not familiar with Yang Ping, unlike those in Orthopedics, who all knew Professor Yang.

"This is Professor Yang from Sanbo Hospital!" Professor Yao introduced Yang Ping to several chief physicians.

The chief doctors merely nodded in acknowledgment. They had never seen a professor so young and assumed he was not much of a notable figure.

Professor Yao asked the attending doctor to bring over the patient file. Yang Ping read through the details meticulously, not overlooking a single detail.

Xu Jiujang, Male, 45 years old, diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy.

It started three years ago when Mr. Xu experienced palpitations, shortness of breath, and a sense of low oxygen after even slight physical activity. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at a local university-affiliated hospital. Despite three years of standard treatment for heart failure, his condition did not improve. Four months ago, Mr. Xu’s illness started to deteriorate. He frequently suffered from chest tightness, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, and was unable to lie down or eat.

This left Mr. Xu feeling desperate, knowing his days were numbered. But with his child still in high school, he can’t give up.

In order to seek a ray of hope, Mr. Xu, after making inquiries from multiple sources, came to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One to see Professor Yao, who conducted a series of tests on him.

The cardiac ultrasound showed that the diameter of the left ventricle had enlarged to 76 millimeters, compared to the typical 45 millimeters diameter found in healthy people’s left ventricles. His heart was also more than double the volume of a normal person and its function was extremely poor. His left ventricular ejection fraction had fallen to 28%, and a normal value should be at least 50%. His heart was in a precarious state.

After being admitted to Nandu Affiliated Hospital One, Professor Yao actively treated his heart failure, but Mr. Xu’s circulatory problems fluctuated, and he had significant internal disorders. He needed to be administered dopamine and epinephrine to maintain his blood pressure.

To relieve the condition and wait for a heart transplant opportunity, Professor Yao installed an intra-aortic balloon pump device to aid the left ventricle for Mr. Xu.

Yang Ping was already familiar with Mr. Xu’s basic condition, and reviewing it again made it even more familiar.

"A heart transplant only has one opportunity, so I bothered you to come over and discuss. I’ve done an ABO incompatible heart transplant once before. It involved an O type donor transplanted to an A type patient, because O type blood can be "compatible" with A type blood. Plus, with the use of new drugs, the risk of rejection was relatively manageable, so we dared to try then. Now, the patient has B type blood, and the possible donor has A type blood, two completely incompatible blood types. With heart transplants, we dare not try."

"If the patient were a toddler who has not fully developed his immune system, we might attempt a cross-blood type transplant surgery, possibly "tricking" the immune system. But for adults whose immune systems are mature, it’s impossible to try."

Professor Yao spoke very politely, expressing his difficulties and concerns.

At present, applying the renal transplantation cross blood matting technique into heart transplantation seems a bit rough and unsuitable.

Yang Ping admired Professor Yao, whose ischemia-free transplant technology is world-class. Although it still needs some time to be fully polished, he was surprised that Professor Yao did not get angry but instead respected him and put himself in a learning position.

Professor Yao indeed carried a grandmaster’s demeanor. Yang Ping decided to share some of his expertise with Professor Yao without reservation.

The ABO blood type is a basic principle for organ transplantation matching. If the blood types are incompatible, the transplant recipient will have a strong immune rejection reaction post-surgery.

If a cross-blood type transplant is to be done, either a thorough washout of antibodies is required, or a powerful suppression of the immune system is needed. This ensures there is no severe immune rejection response, enabling the transplanted organ to safely join the host body.

The chief physicians around him didn’t understand why Professor Yao was showing so much respect to this young man.

Yang Ping thought for a moment and then said:

"Professor Yao, in this case, we would indeed have to use a blood-cleansing method, but a more advanced one is required. Currently, there is a new method. A research team from the University of Toronto, Canada, used two enzymes FpGalNAcdeacetylase and FpGalactosaminidase and supporting technology to clean blood type antibodies. They were able to completely wash out AB blood type antibodies, turning the organ into a universal donor. I suggest using this technology."

Ordinary blood washing techniques are already incapable of handling such high-level difficulty. Only new techniques can be deployed.

"I’ve also read the paper on this, but it’s still experimental technology. It’s unclear whether the technology has matured. And obtaining these two enzymes and related technologies seems unlikely." Professor Yao showed signs of reluctance.

The application of this cutting-edge technology seemed unrealistic. The acquisition of these enzymes was a difficult task, to begin with.

"For this patient to be saved now, there are only two paths. One is to obtain a heart from a suitable blood type donor. The other is to acquire the method from the University of Toronto. Which option do you think is more likely? The former relies entirely on luck, similar to winning a lottery of 5 million. The latter, on the other hand, is attainable with effort. If Professor Yao is willing to give it a shot, I can help reach out to the team at the University of Toronto. You could also try inviting Professor Li Zehui from the Cleveland Medical Center and his senior fellow, Dodge. They are all influential figures in North American cardiac surgery and would surely be able to help contact the University of Toronto." Yang Ping suggested to Professor Yao to take a bold step.

Yang Ping had calculated, and without a heart transplant, this organ patient had no chance.

Of course, there was another method - to perform an artificial heart transplant, gain some buffer time, and then wait for a heart transplant. However, the cost of an artificial heart suitable for this patient is not something ordinary people can afford. Additionally, even with waiting, there would still be no chance to get a same-blood-type heart.

After contemplating, Professor Yao decided to take Yang Ping’s advice and take a bold step.

"Once again, I have to trouble you, Professor Yang, to help me contact the team at the University of Toronto?"

Ever since lending Yang Ping a machine for his surgery and getting to know him, Professor Yao felt as though he had hitched himself onto a lucky star.

"Very well, I will send an email right away. You, meanwhile, make time to fly over there and be sure to learn their technology. Although I am also familiar with their techniques, you have to get their two blood washing enzymes. It would take quite a long time to prepare these blood washing enzymes."

Yang Ping’s words reassured Professor Yao that his recommendation of a new technology was not based on a single thesis.

Indeed, Yang Ping was very familiar with this new technology.

When he was reading papers in the System Laboratory, he would always use the interesting findings for experiments.

The chief doctors standing aside, listening to Yang Ping and Professor Yao discussing the case, were puzzled.

The team from the University of Toronto, the contact he promised to make, and Professor Li Zehui and Dodge from the Cleveland clinic seemed to be his sworn brothers. He talked as if sending an email would guarantee their help.

And he said these words with seeming confidence.

The chance to learn the latest blood-antibody washing technique from the University of Toronto and access the two most advanced enzymes had Professor Yao quite excited.

Just for this, he would be able to leap forward several steps in the field of organ transplantation.

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