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A 64-year-old Quebec man has become the first patient in North America to receive a regenerated liver thanks to a breakthrough technology that could make dozens of additional livers available for transplant in its first year alone.

The technology, called Liver Assist, allows doctors to treat and assess a donated liver outside the human body before transplanting it. For Landry, it meant receiving an organ that might otherwise have been considered too risky to use.

How it works:

The Liver Assist system works by connecting a donated liver to a machine that circulates an oxygen-rich fluid through the organ, which can help reverse some of the damage caused by a lack of oxygen while the organ is outside the body.

The technology then allows doctors to switch to a blood-based solution and assess how the liver functions in conditions designed to mimic the human body.

“If it works on the machine, then it’s going to work in the human,” Hénault said.

The scale of impact:

The CHUM performs about 70 liver transplants each year. Hénault said a study done with Transplant Québec looked at livers that had previously been declined for transplantation and assessed which ones might have been recoverable using the new technology.

The team estimates the machine could make an additional 20 to 24 livers available for transplantation during its first year of use. That number could grow as the technology becomes more widely used.

“We will be able to help so many more patients in need of a liver that are waiting on the transplant list,” Hénault said.