2nd Baboon Liver Transplant Performed; Recipient Is Man, 62

Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh performed their second baboon-to-human liver transplant Sunday, saying they had been encouraged by the moderate success of the first operation last June.

The patient, a 62-year-old man, was dying of hepatitis B, a virus that destroys the liver. Baboon livers are believed to be immune to the disease.

The transplant took nearly 12 hours, Dr. John Fung, the lead surgeon, said by phone during a break.

“The liver is in,” Fung said. “It’s too early to say if it is functioning.”

The first human recipient of a baboon liver, a 35-year-old man who was never identified, died Sept. 6, 70 days after surgery. An overdose of an anti-rejection drug hastened an infection that killed him, doctors said in a study released last week.

Like Sunday’s recipient, the first baboon-to-human transplant patient suffered from hepatitis B. He was also infected with the virus that causes AIDS but had not developed the disease. The second recipient is not HIV-positive, a hospital spokesman said.

Doctors on Sunday used a liver from a baboon raised at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Tex. Before removing the liver, veterinarians and scientists checked it for infections that affect baboons.

Surgeons say it is likely that animal organs will be used more frequently for transplants because the number of human organs available is small.