'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.

• Date: 07/04/2009
• Source: Paolo Macchiarini
• Quote type: Positive
• Animal(s): Pig
• Countries: Spain
• Research field(s): Anatomie and Entwicklung, Medizintechnik
• Medical application(s): Chirurgie, Medizin

Last edited: 27 August 2014 05:49