The first pig heart transplant was performed in the United States, and the patient is recovering on the third day, the Associated Press reported.
According to the report, the University of Maryland Medical Center performed this operation with the consent of David Bennett, a patient in his 50s who had no other option because he could not receive a human organ transplant on the 7th local time.
Rejection is a problem in animal organ transplantation, but it is said that the medical staff used pig hearts in which the sugars in cells that cause rejection were removed through genetic manipulation.
In 1984, an infant who received a heart transplant from a baboon survived for 21 days.
The Associated Press reported that it is still too early to determine whether the operation will be successful, but it is evaluated as another advancement in the history of animal organ transplantation.
(Photo = Courtesy of University of Maryland Medical School, AP, Yonhap News)