What is an OCS machine?

The Organ Care System (OCS) Heart (TransMedics Inc.) is a portable ex-vivo organ perfusion system which can preserve a donor heart in a near-normothermic beating state from retrieval until it is transplanted. The OCS Heart console is an electromechanical, portable console with wireless monitor.

How does the OCS heart Work?

The OCS Heart is a portable, warm perfusion, and monitoring system designed to keep a donor heart at a human-like, metabolically active state. By monitoring key parameters of the functioning heart, physicians may use their medical judgement to assess a potentially suitable heart’s condition and viability.

What is OCS lung?

The OCS Lung is a portable perfusion, ventilation, and monitoring system that maintains the organ at a near-physiologic state – allowing physicians to assess and improve the condition of lungs between the donor and recipient sites.

What does TransMedics group do?

TransMedics is a commercial-stage medical technology company transforming organ transplant therapy for end-stage organ failure patients across multiple disease states.

Is OCS FDA approved?

TransMedics Group has secured approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its OCS Heart System that is developed for use with organs collected from donors after brain death (DBD).

What does heart in a box mean?

Traditionally, donor hearts (and other organs) are placed on ice and are transported to the recipient in a cooler. The technology of Heart-in-a-box fixes the time limit. Now hearts could potentially remain viable for over ten hours, greatly increasing the donor pool for patients badly in need of a heart transplant.

How does the heart beat after a transplant?

In cardiac transplantation, the donor heart is denervated, which corresponds to a complete absence of vagal tone. Consequently, the heart beats at an intrinsic rate, averaging over 90 beats/minute at rest (1, 2)—significantly greater than healthy innervated individuals.

How is a heart transplant done?

The surgeon then removes the diseased heart. The healthy donor heart is then sewn in place, and the blood vessels are then attached to the new heart. This process enables blood to start flowing, and the heart then starts to beat normally. If the donor’s heart has trouble beating, then an electric shock might be given.

How do you transport a heart transplant?

Called “heart in a box” by developers, the TransMedics’ Organ Care System is a sterile box that houses the donor heart and keeps it oxygenated and nourished with continuously circulating blood, fed into the heart through clamped-on tubing. Thus the donor heart keeps pumping while being transported.

What is DCD heart transplant?

As part of the new procedure, known as “donation after cardiac death,” or DCD, transplants, organs are retrieved from those who have died because their heart stopped — either naturally or because physicians discontinued life support.

What does this emoji 💗 mean?

The growing heart emoji, 💗, shows a pink or red heart surrounded by the outlines of several slightly lighter-colored hearts of increasing size, which suggests that the heart is expanding. It’s used to express outpourings of emotions like love, joy, affection, pride, and even sorrow.

How does the OCS Heart in a box work?

Often referred to as a “Heart-in-a-Box”, the OCS™ Heart is a revolutionary system that preserves donor organs. The OCS acts as a miniature intensive care unit that keeps organs alive and healthy by preserving them in a natural state that mimics the human body so that organs can remain viable for transplant along the way to recipients.

Do you need training to use the OCS Heart system?

The manufacturer specifies that all relevant staff (surgeons, other clinicians and technical staff) must attend a 2-day training course before using the system. This training is included in the cost of the system. Annual maintenance of the OCS Heart system is needed and is provided free of charge by the manufacturer.

What do you need to know about the OCS system?

The OCS Heart console is reusable hardware that contains the components needed to drive and monitor the heart perfusion module, which is part of the heart perfusion set. The heart perfusion set contains all of the components that directly contact blood or the heart during heart preservation.

Is the OCS Heart system available for DCD?

The OCS Heart system allows for hearts to be transported for longer distances in comparison with cold storage. It is the only available technology that allows donation after circulatory death (DCD).