Dr.K.M.Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline hospital announced today that they have completed over 100 successful Homograft implantations on patients requiring aortic and pulmonary valve replacements. A homograft (also called allograft) is a valve that has been removed from a donated human heart, preserved and frozen in liquid nitrogen under sterile conditions. Both aortic and pulmonary artery valves can be removed from the same heart. Homografts are particularly useful for surgical repair of babies who are born with complete absence of proximal portion of lung arteries (pulmonary atresia truncus arteriosis) Homograft is an ideal valve for aortic valve replacement, especially in growing children, unmarried women, in valvular infections etc. Here the heart’s natural anatomy is preserved and patients do not need to be on any blood-thinner medications. Although the limited availability is a drawback in some settings, Frontier Lifeline maintains a large supply and has extensive experience with these valves.

Speaking on the achievement, Dr.K.M.Cherian, Chairman, Frontier Lifeline Hospital said, ‘There are not many homograft valve banks in India and Frontier Lifeline operates the busiest homograft valve bank in the country. These valves can be harvested from non-viable hearts, ideally within 24 hours and sometimes even up to 48 hours if the body has been preserved well under optimum conditions. If blood groups match between donor and recipient hearts, the results after grafting are even better. De-cellularization improves the outcome even further; this is what Frontier Lifeline already does as a matter of course in their state-of-the-art facility along with further processing of the homograft. Cryopreserving these valves between -140?C to -150?C in the vapour phase of liquid nitrogen allows a storage life of upto 25 years.’ Whenever a transplant is undertaken, the recipient’s explanted heart usually offers opportunities for harvesting both the valves. In the event of the availability of an immediate recipient for the freshly harvested valves

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