Science Sunday: Woman Harvests Transplanted Trachea in Arm

Linda de Croock suffered a painful injury when her throat was crushed in a car accident 25 years ago. Up until now, she has had her windpipe held open with metal stents, but now she has a brand new trachea thanks to an organ donor and radical science.

It's called tracheal allotransplantation and it involves using a donated trachea, inserting it in the patient's arm to revascularize (restore and grow blood vessels) and then removing it after a certain amount of time for surgical placement in the throat.

Here is a picture of how surgeons placed the trachea in her arm for revascularization:

By taking anti-rejection drugs, the woman was able to house the trachea in her forearm for 10 months to allow it to regrow cells and blood vessels before it was ready to be used. Once it was ready, surgeons removed the trachea from her arm and placed it in her throat. Now, she is breathing normally and the trachea has been deemed the largest organ to be successfully transplanted to date using this technique.

Article: Popular Science
Picture: The New England Journal of Medicine