Synthetic tracheaUCL
Last month (June 9), Swedish surgeons have implanted the first synthetic trachea. Yesterday, the still weak but healthy 36-year-old man was discharged from the hospital and sent home to Iceland to recover.
The patient had an aggressive, golf ball-sized tumor blocking his airways that had resisted chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Without surgery, the patient would have died, BBC reports. Researchers from University College London built the trachea out of a porous nanocomposite material, using detailed 3D scans of the patient’s trachea to create an exact replica. The researchers then soaked the synthetic trachea in bone marrow stem cells taken from the patient’s nose to reduce the risk of organ rejection and the need for immunosuppressive drugs. After growing for two days in a bioreactor developed ...
