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Italian doctors successfully transplant a kidney in the place of the spleen
- vanni 10y agoOther sources: http://www.thelocal.it/20161214/italian-doctors-transplant-kidney-for-spleen-in-world-first http://www.thelocal.it/20161214/italian-doctors-transplant-k... http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2016/12/14/news/torino_trapiantato_un_rene_al_posto_della_milza_e_il_primo_intervento_al_mondo-154081884/ http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2016/12/14/news/torino_t... [ITALIAN]
- gus_massa 10y agoThe Italian link has more info. Thanks. Autotransaltion: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftorino.repubblica.it%2Fcronaca%2F2016%2F12%2F14%2Fnews%2Ftorino_trapiantato_un_rene_al_posto_della_milza_e_il_primo_intervento_al_mondo-154081884%2F%3Frefresh_ce https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%...
- vanni 10y agoTwo more sources: http://www.lastampa.it/2016/12/14/cronaca/un-rene-al-posto-della-milza-salva-la-vita-di-una-bambina-YTPmJCvtGHRU14vMP7rrjN/pagina.html http://www.lastampa.it/2016/12/14/cronaca/un-rene-al-posto-d... [ITALIAN] http://tg24.sky.it/tg24/scienze/2016/12/14/torino-primo-trapianto-rene-al-posto-di-milza.html http://tg24.sky.it/tg24/scienze/2016/12/14/torino-primo-trap... [ITALIAN]
- dang 10y agoOk, we'll use the first of those instead of http://www.ansa.it/english/news/science_tecnology/2016/12/14/girl-gets-kidney-in-place-of-spleen-2_3093de72-ec8a-4cd7-bd75-2b761df3d650.html http://www.ansa.it/english/news/science_tecnology/2016/12/14... since it has a bit more information. If there's a better URL we can change it again.
- noobermin 10y agoAnd I was expecting a malpractice mix-up. Can any biologist folk explain how this is possible?
- gus_massa 10y agoWeird. IIUC, it looks like they removed (partially?) the spleen to get some room to put an additional kidney, not to replace the functionality of the spleen. Do someone has a link with more info? Can any biologist/medic folk explain more???
- mikecsh 10y agoI don't think this can be the whole story. Normally when a kidney is transplanted into a patient, the defective kidneys are not removed (adds unnecessary risk). There is plenty of space to add a kidney without removing the spleen so there must be more to this!
- jonwachob91 10y agoHer young age, and thus minimal body development, may have limited the extra space needed...?
- jessriedel 10y agoYep, and in particular it's not difficult to get sufficient access to circulatory system. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments_and_procedures/kidney-transplant/hic-kidney-transplant-procedure http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments_and_procedur... We definitely need more info. EDIT: Actually, looks like it was in fact an issue of space and blood vessels. From the Google-translation of the Italian article linked elsewhere in the comments: > The particular malformation of the baby made it impossible for the kidney system donated by the classic conventional technique. The only option then was to use another way of connecting to the bloodstream....In order to create the necessary space for the new kidney, a revolutionary surgical technique which involved the removal of the spleen and the installation of the kidney on splenic vessels of the spleen itself along their course behind the pancreas was applied. The ureter of the transplanted kidney was then implanted directly on the bladder. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftorino.repubblica.it%2Fcronaca%2F2016%2F12%2F14%2Fnews%2Ftorino_trapiantato_un_rene_al_posto_della_milza_e_il_primo_intervento_al_mondo-154081884%2F%3Frefresh_ce https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%...
- georgespencer 10y agoTo be clear: this was intentional.
- erelde 10y agoShould there be a renaming here? It's not intentional clickbait, but my brain did catch that title very quickly and proceded as fast as it can to make assumptions. Both titles here[1] are better in my opinion. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176066 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13176066
- logicallee 10y agoI happened to have absolutely zero doubt about this (i.e. I read/understood it correctly when seeing it on the front page), and I'd just like to take this to point out what an example this is of how great HN is, our culture here, informative and newsworthy, serious things, etc. On any other site (e.g. Reddit) the title (which currently reads "Girl Gets Kidney In Place Of Spleen") would have been some clickbaity shock story to drum up outrage (i.e. it would have been about a single, dramatic case of medical malpractice) , and the comments would have not been intelligent or thoughtful, because the whole story is a throwaway one. Here a story like that would have been buried, and the one we are reading (which would not have made the front page of Reddit) is extremely interesting! On the other hand, a story about medical malpractice would also be thoughtful, perhaps long-form, heavy on statistivs, etc. Not a single "tabloid story." (I can see how others here misread the title, I am just pointing out that the only reason those of us who happened to read it correctly did so, is the kind of submissions we have here and which the mods don't bury.) I think a title change is fine - perhaps it could be changed to "In World First, Girl Gets Kidney In Place Of Spleen"
- EGreg 10y agoI immediately thought it was Because this girl survived
- duiker101 10y agoBeing in Italy, just by reading the title there was 50/50 chance that it wasn't.
- alemhnan 10y agoquite racist
- bkmartin 10y agoThat's not racist. Italy is not a race. It is an indictment of the medical competency in Italy based on his perception of their system. I wish people would stop throwing that term around so loosely. If you don't like what he said, then actually form a coherent rebuttal. Not that his comment was much better than your own... just making a point here.
- taeric 10y agoI find it interesting to read that "Foo is not a race." I thought it was pretty established that "race" is a dodgy thing, at best. Such that any collection of people that have been together for a long time would ultimately qualify. Back to the readings for me, it seems.
- gizmo686 10y agoYou could consider "Italian" to be a race; but Italy is just the country where Italians happen to be from.
- taeric 10y agoI think every person reading malpractice is huge in Italy, took that as Italians are huge in malpractice... And, I still see race as a dodgy concept.
- logfromblammo 10y agoIf Italian is not a race, it surely is a tribal identity that transcends the borders of Italy the country.
- kingkawn 10y agoSince the transplant recipient requires immunosuppression anyway it's probably a good trade off.
- intellix 10y agoyour leg bone's connected to your........ hip bone
- randogp 10y agoIntentional. Both kidney and spleen filter blood, although spleen is not essential and can be removed (splenectomy). Sacrificing the spleen, the surgeon used the spleen vessels to connect the kidney to the blood circulation. Reading the Italian news, the vessels of the other kidneys were in bad shape.
- Raphmedia 10y agoDoes that mean that we could implant a third kidney to people in the future?
- emilecantin 10y agoAs a French-speaking person, I was a bit confused by the word "Spleen", as it means something akin to "Melancholy" in French (it was mostly used by Renaissance poets like Beaudelaire), but I always assumed it was an anglicism or something so I really wasn't expecting it to be a body part. What's kind of funny is that the French word for this organ, "rate", is used in the idiom "Se dilater la rate", which means laughing a lot. So the same organ's name is related to both sadness and laughter, depending on the language. I now realize that I still don't know what a spleen is or what it does in the body; time to fire up Wikipedia!
- escape_goat 10y agoYou are in for a surprise. The spleen is a very big and very important organ that goes largely unnoticed.
- jessaustin 10y agoI've lived the last 26 years without a spleen, with none of the immunological problems that various physicians threatened. The importance of the spleen exceeds that of the appendix, but only just.
- escape_goat 10y agoThe truth is that I had confused it with the pancreas.
- sbjustin 10y agoMy spleen hurts when I laugh a lot :) (Not really, just that part of my body)
- pyromine 10y agoThere is actually a reason for this that follows back all the way to the middle ages belief that your body needed to be in balance, and black bile produced in the spleen was one of the components of that balance. Granted I was reading about this last night, but I can't remember it to the full extent now.
- mentioned_edu 10y agoThis is incredible.
- carbocation 10y agoI just want to point our that the title, "Italian doctors transplant kidney for spleen," remains misleading, to my eyes. This isn't as interesting as it sounds. The patient had renal failure and needed a transplant. Due to vascular anatomy, it sounds like the lower abdomen was not an appropriate place for a new transplanted kidney. The innovative technique was to sacrifice the spleen to create a space for the kidney, then to use the intact splenic vasculature to hook up to the transplanted kidney. The spleen is a lymphoid organ that people can live without. Many people with sickle cell disease are "functionally" asplenic. It can be removed after injury. Etc. It's a highly vascular organ and has a robust supply via the splenic artery. In no way does the kidney perform the function of the spleen.
- sctb 10y agoThanks, we've updated the title again to help clarify.
- matco11 10y agoThe current title is still misleading as it overcorrected in the other direction: now it sounds like the doctors made a mistake. If the word "innovative" sounds like inappropriate - which I am not sure why that would be the case, given this was a "first-ever" technique, at least "successfully" should be added in the title to avoid it sounding like there was a mishap.
- sctb 10y agoYes, thank you. We've added "successfully".
- niels_olson 10y agoI would change it to "Italian doctors graft kidney to splenic vasculature, sacrificing immune function for intra-abdominal real estate".
- niels_olson 10y ago
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]