'I was very much afraid. Before this, we had been doing this work only on pigs.'

Professor Paolo Macchiarini at Universitat de Barcelona, Spain - the first surgeon to perform a tissue-engineered whole-organ transplant.

New surgical techniques are always developed and practiced on animals before they are used on humans. Pigs are often used for surgery because their organs are a similar size to those of humans.

Quotation:

"I was very much afraid. Before this, we had been doing this work only on pigs.

"But as soon as the donor trachea came out of the bioreactor it was a very positive surprise."

Source:

BBC News, quotation given during a press conference, November 2008.

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Tags

Research Fields: Anatomy & development, Medical technologies(yes - 2 items)

Source: Paolo Macchiarini (required)
Countries: Spain(yes - 1 items)

Animals Used: Pig(yes - 1 items)

Word/phrase: positive (required)
Medical Applications: Surgery, Medicine(yes - 2 items)