LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) announces the successful transportation of the first-ever donor kidney flown on a functioning perfusion pump unattended by a medical team. Using new technology, the deceased donor’s kidney flew commercially from Louisville on July 13, 2023, to save a patient’s life at the University of Mississippi Medical Center that morning.
Normally, donated organs on a perfusion pump can only be flown with a medical team and on short-distance charter flights. This is due to technology limitations and federal regulations that organs should not be flown on a commercial airline on a functioning pump. The new technology, funded earlier this year by a grant from the Kidney Transplant Collaborative, also includes GPS tracking to allow KODA staff to monitor the organ in transit.
The LifePort Kidney Transporter was developed by Organ Recovery Systems (ORS) and is the first-ever aviation-capable pulsatile perfusion pump. ORS, the leading organ preservation product and service provider, developed this technological advancement to align with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and aims to improve organ viability and transplant acceptance rates to save lives.
KODA is an organ procurement organization (OPO) dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize the transportation of organs and save more lives of those waiting for a kidney transplant. We will be able to transport farther and preserve organs like never before,” said Julie Bergin, President and CEO of KODA.
Historically, when a kidney is recovered, it is kept sterile in a cooler of ice to maintain viability while transported by vehicle or airplane to the transplant center. The ice is where the limitations lie. Often, kidneys are not transplanted because of prolonged cold ischemic time, the time that the organ is kept on ice after its blood supply has been removed, which could reduce the organ’s viability. With the new aviation-approved transportation of the LKT, cold ischemic times are eliminated because the kidney stays perfused on the pump throughout the entire transport to the transplant operating room.
Dr. Christopher Anderson, James D. Hardy professor and chair of the Department of Surgery and chief of the Division of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said, “It, in my mind, worked seamlessly. It is better for the patient and better for the kidney. I’m appreciative of Kentucky doing this. It’s a great example of an OPO trying to resolve the problems we sometimes have in transplant.”
While perfusion pumps have long existed to improve kidney outcomes, the LKT fits in a custom crate that meets FAA regulations. The LKT, in combination with innovative GPS technologies, makes this level of advancement in organ transplantation possible.
Since the kidneys will be unaccompanied by a medical team on the flight, KODA partnered with supply chain visibility company OnAsset Intelligence, which will monitor the pump and exact GPS location. Developed within current FAA regulations, this innovation will help to eliminate delivery delays ensuring a smooth and timely transit.
