Double transplant by Akdeniz specialists

ANTALYA - Doğan News Agency

The patients with artificial heart equipment wait for heart transplants. AA photo

Akdeniz University surgeons have transplanted a heart and kidney simultaneously in another “first” following face transplant surgery conducted at the university earlier this year. When implanting the heart and kidney, the surgeons took the main aorta from the kidney of the donor. Akdeniz University’s cardiovascular department head, Ömer Bayezid, said it was the first surgery of its kind.

Surgeons also transplanted artificial hearts into three patients.

The artificial heart equipment costs 200,000 Turkish Liras, which will be covered by the government under social security. Patients waiting for heart transplants gain time with artificial heart transplants.

Last month, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern province of Antalya successfully performed a face transplant operation on a 19-year-old man whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby.

There are total of 800,000 patients with cardiovascular disease in Turkey, and many patients are waiting for heart transplants, Bayezid said, adding they could live longer with an artificial heart.