The world’s first successful bloodless heart-liver transplant makes a medical milestone
Tampa General Hospital and USF Health achieve groundbreaking first-ever bloodless heart-liver transplant for patient with religious beliefs against blood transfusions.
The Brief:
Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida Health made history by performing the nation’s first successful bloodless heart–liver transplant on patient Cesar Ale.
Ale suffered from advanced coronary artery disease and advanced fatty liver disease for five years.
Due to religious beliefs, Ale could not receive blood transfusions. He remained hospitalized and on the transplant list for 15 consecutive months.
What We Know:
Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida Health have made a landmark contribution to the medical world by performing the world’s first successful bloodless heart–liver transplant.
The patient, Cesar Ale, had battled advanced coronary artery disease and advanced fatty liver disease for five years. He spent 15 consecutive months hospitalized while awaiting a transplant. Because of his religious beliefs, Ale was unable to receive blood transfusions.
Ale’s surgeons were forced to find an alternative approach to save his life. Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, the liver transplant surgeon, explained:
“We collaborated closely with anesthesia because there are specific maneuvers anesthesiologists must perform to avoid blood loss, as well as with the perfusion team involved in bypass during the heart transplant. It truly amounted to a surgical feat, an anesthetic feat, and a medical feat of complexity to allow us to perform this.”
The surgery lasted approximately eight hours.
Ale’s recovery was smooth, and he was able to return home just three weeks after the procedure.
Prior to surgery, Ale could not walk distances as short as 15 feet without experiencing severe chest pain. He sought medical care across the country, from the Midwest to the West Coast, but no institution would place him on a transplant list due to the high-risk nature of his case. Tampa General Hospital, however, gave him a chance. Today, Ale is able to resume his regular life.
Ale has expressed deep gratitude to his donors and hopes to thank them in person one day.
The surgical team stated they were unaware they were the first to accomplish this type of procedure. Their sole focus, they said, was doing what was best for Mr. Ale.
This pioneering procedure represents a historic moment in transplant medicine and highlights cutting-edge advancements in surgical care, offering renewed hope for future transplant patients.
Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy serves as Vice President and Chief of the TGH Transplant Institute, Surgical Director and Vice President of Medical Affairs for USF and Tampa General Physicians, and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.
Dr. Gundars Katlaps performed the heart transplant. He is the Surgical Director of the TGH Lung Transplant Program, Associate Professor of Surgery at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, a member of the Division of Cardiothoracic Transplantation Surgery, and Co-Director of the TGH Aortic Disease Program.
Source:
The surgical team, the patient, and his son spoke at a press conference at Tampa General Hospital today.
