D3B Team: CRN Award Presentation
The team overseeing VITTAL (Viability testing and transplantation of marginal livers) won an award for Collaboration in Research at the CRN West Midlands Awards Ceremony. The VITTAL Trial is a Wellcome Trust Funded study which aims to achieve safe transplantation of liver grafts that have been rejected by all UK Transplant centres because they are perceived to be too high-risk to use. The trial uses novel technology called Normothermic Machine Perfusion to test the grafts. The OrganOx Metra device simulates the conditions organs experience in the body, as they are perfused with a blood-based fluid at the body’s normal temperature. If the livers meet a number of pre-determined criteria, they are transplanted into consented patients who are on the liver transplant waiting list. The trial aims to reduce the number of livers that are currently discarded and increase the number of transplants performed each year whilst reducing risks to patients.
