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On April 19, for the first time in its history, the kidney of a donor was delivered by drone to surgeons of the University of Maryland Medical Center. The kidney was transported from a hospital about three miles away.
RELATED: FIRST COMMERCIAL DRONES DELIVERY OPERATION BEGINS IN AUSTRALIA
A major step forward
"This major advancement in human medicine and transplantation exemplifies two key elements of our mission: innovation and collaboration," said E. Albert Reece, MD, Ph.D., MBA, executive vice president for medical affairs. , UM Baltimore, and the John Z. Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Maryland.
The kidney has been successfully grafted to a 44-year-old Baltimore woman with kidney failure. The patient had spent eight years on dialysis before the procedure.
"All this is incredible. Years ago, it was not something you could think of, "said the patient before his release a few days later.
The drone
The drone was a custom made model with eight rotors and several powertrains to ensure stability. It was equipped with a special device to maintain and monitor a viable human organ to ensure that the kidney has been maintained in the best possible conditions.
It also included a wireless mesh network to control the drone and provide communications to the ground crew. The research team conducted numerous tests before the flight of the renal drone, experimenting with the transport of saline solution, blood tubes and other materials, including a healthy but not viable human kidney.
"We had to create a new system that was still part of the FAA's regulatory structure, but also able to support the extra weight of the organ, cameras and systems for tracking, communicating and securing organs, in a densely populated urban area – for a longer distance and with more endurance, "said Matthew Scbadero, MPA, director of UMD's UAS test site, belonging to the Faculty of Engineering A. James Clark.
"There is a lot of pressure knowing that a person is waiting for this organ, but it is also a special privilege to be part of this crucial mission."
Drones have already been used to deliver medical supplies such as drugs in Ghana and vaccines in Vanuatu, but they offer a lot of promises regarding the delivery of organs. Timing is essential when it comes to organs because they can survive a few hours outside the body.
Since drones can work a lot faster than other traditional modes of transportation, they increase the likelihood that organs will remain viable when they reach their destination.
"There remains a deplorable disparity between the number of recipients on the waiting list for an organ transplant and the total number of transplantable organs. This new technology could help expand the donor's organ pool and access to transplantation, "said Joseph Scalea, MD, badistant professor of surgery at UMSOM, project leader and one surgeons who performed the transplant at UMMC.
"Delivering an organ from a donor to a patient is a sacred duty with many moving parts. It is essential that we find ways to do it better.
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