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Pig Cells Give 2 Liver Patients Bridge to Life

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In operations that doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center say were the first of their kind, a device that employs the cells of a miniature pig to act as a temporary liver was used on two dying patients while they awaited human liver transplants.

Both Cedars-Sinai patients, a 36-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy, are doing well after the transplants, according to Dr. Achilles A. Demetriou, the physician who developed the device. The procedures were done within the past two weeks.

“This is really the first time that the device has been used as a bridge to buy time, hours, while waiting for a liver,” Demetriou said. However, he added that it is too soon to tell whether the device was responsible for keeping the patients alive.

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