What were the first transplants?

Today, replacing a kidney or liver is considered a delicate but (almost) routine operation, yet the road traveled to achieve these results was complex and full of obstacles. in fact, the techniques for replacing organs and tissues are relatively recent achievements of medicine: let’s retrace together the milestones that have marked the history of transplants.

On December 23, 1954, in Boston, Massachusetts (United States), Dr. Joseph Murray performed the first kidney transplant between identical twins, a choice that overrode the problems of immune rejection.

This operation revolutionized transplant medicine: the patient survived the operation for eight years, an extraordinary success that led the American doctor to receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990.

On 11 June 1963, in Jackson, Mississippi (USA), surgeon James Hardy performed the first lung transplant. The patient was a death row inmate in terminal condition and survived only 18 days. Nonetheless, the operation paved the way for more advanced techniques in the future. It was not until November 7, 1983, with the work of Dr. Joel Cooper in Toronto, that the first lasting results were achieved.

The first liver transplant was performed on 1 March 1963 in Denver, Colorado (USA), by Thomas Starzl, a pioneer in the sector who, however, did not immediately achieve success. The operation failed, but the doctor did not give up and continued to perfect the technique until, in the 1980s, thanks to the introduction of immunosuppressive drugs, his procedures became routine, helping to save many lives.

On December 17, 1966, in Minneapolis, American surgeon Richard Lillehei performed the first combined pancreas and kidney transplant to treat a patient suffering from diabetes and kidney failure. Although the patient lasted only a few months, the operation was pioneering and demonstrated the possibility of addressing complex diseases with multiple transplants, mostly effective from the 1980s onwards.

On 3 December 1967, in Cape Town (South Africa), Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant. The patient survived just 18 days, but the surgery proved that it was possible to successfully replace a human heart. That daring operation marked the beginning of modern cardiac surgery and paved the way for constant improvements, so much so that today, the luckiest people live for decades with a new heart.

In 1967, again under the guidance of Richard Lillehei, the first attempts at small intestine transplantation were carried out in the United States, one of the most complex organs to transfer due to the high risk of rejection.

The first results, in fact, were disappointing, but (as in the case of other organs) thanks to progress in immunosuppressive therapy, today this operation is a life-saving reality for many patients.

On September 23, 1998, in Lyon (France), surgeon Jean-Michel Dubernard completed the first hand transplant from donor to recipient. Unfortunately, after a period of remission, the patient stopped the anti-rejection therapy and the limb had to be amputated. Surgeon Marco Lanzetta Bertani also took part in that operation, author of the first upper limb transplant carried out in our country in 2000.

In July 2003 in Vienna, Austrian Rainer Kotz was the first doctor to perform a partial tongue transplant on a man suffering from oral cancer. The operation was successful in terms of tissue vascularization and allowed the patient, after months of rehabilitation, to recover essential functions such as chewing and speaking, greatly improving his quality of life.

On November 27, 2005, in Amiens (France), the French surgeons Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard (the same one who carried out the first hand transplant) performed a partial face graft on a woman disfigured by a dog. In March 2010, in Barcelona, ​​the Spaniard Joan Pere-Barret performed the first total facial transplant, restoring face and dignity to a man seriously injured in an accident.

On September 15, 2012, in Gothenburg, Swede Mats Brännström performed the first uterus transplant which subsequently led to a successful pregnancy. The patient, who had been without the organ since birth, managed to give birth to a healthy baby in September 2014, giving birth at 32 weeks. This result marked an epochal turning point in reproductive medicine, offering new hope to those suffering from uterine infertility.

On December 11, 2014, in Cape Town, South African André van der Merwe successfully completed the first complete penis transplant. The doctor then used micro-flaps of skin from the recipient’s thigh (a young man who had lost the organ due to a botched circumcision), to obtain a better aesthetic result. The boy thus regained not only his urinary function, but also his sexual function.

In May 2023, at NYU Langone Health in New York, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez performed the first, and to date only, eye and optic nerve transplant as part of a partial face graft. Although the new eyeball did not help the patient recover his sight, the operation demonstrated that it is possible to replace such a complex organ, keeping it vital and vascularized.

A group of surgeons in California have completed, after four years of work, the first bladder transplant on a living patient, a particularly complex operation considered a milestone for medicine. The recipient, a 41-year-old survivor of an aggressive form of urinary tract cancer and sentenced to dialysis, is well, has recovered his kidney function and is able to urinate on his own, even if the risks associated with the operation cannot be said to have been overcome.