US Man gets first-of-its-kind multiple organ transplant

In a first-of-its-kind procedure, doctors in the US have successfully transplanted a “composite” skull and scalp flap, along with kidney and pancreas - all from the same donor - in a 55-year-old patient.

The patient was suffering from a non-healing scalp defect and declining organ kidney and pancreas function, researchers said.

“Hopefully, this case and others like it will help to widen the narrow indications for this fascinating new field of reconstructive surgery,” said Jesse Creed Selber of The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Centre and colleagues.

The experience may open the way to further procedures combining “vascularised composite allotransplantation” (VCA) with organ 

transplants, in patients who have already accepted the need for lifelong immunosuppressive therapy.

VCA refers to transplant procedures combining different types of tissues, such as skin, muscle, blood vessels, nerves, and bone.