A three-year-old boy has become the first child to undergo a heart-double lung-liver transplant.
Brendon Ednie of Daytona, Florida, underwent the 20-hour operation on August 21 at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. When surgeons announced the operation on December 11, they said they had purposely refrained from publicizing the transplant until Brendon's condition was stabilized. "At this point, we are unable to predict his prognosis, but we are optimistic that this operation will improve the quality of Brendon's life," said surgeon Jorge Reyes, MD.
One of fewer than 100 people in the world with Alagille syndrome, Brendon was born without a pulmonary artery and without bile ducts in his liver. Surgeon Frank A. Pigula, MD, said that the operation was technically difficult because it involved three vital body systems: the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems. Surgeons first transplanted the heart and lungs and then the liver. All four organs came from the same donor.
Only one other person in the United States—an adult—is believed to have undergone a heart-double lung-liver transplant. The first such operation was performed in 1986 on Davina Thompson in London. When she died in August, Ms. Thompson was the world's longest survivor of this type of multiorgan transplant.
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