Clinical study with good results using STEEN Solution™ published in prestigious scientific journal
In a landmark study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine (www.nejm.org), surgeons at Toronto General Hospital reported one-year outcomes of patients transplanted with initially rejected donor lungs after ex vivo lung perfusion using STEEN Solution™. The most recent hospital to use the method is Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.
In the Toronto study, lungs initially deemed unusable, were perfused with STEEN Solution™ outside of the donor´s body and transplanted into 22 patients.
The rate of primary organ dysfunction within 3 days after the transplant was only half in the STEEN Solution™ perfused group compared to the control group of 136 with conventionally treated lungs. Additionally, there were no severe adverse events that were directly attributable to the ex vivo procedure. The authors concluded that initially poor functioning donor lungs, when ex vivo perfused with STEEN Solution™, showed similar results one year after transplant to lungs obtained from standard, conventional donors.
Recently the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden reported on their first four transplanted cases after use of STEEN Solution™ together with a new machine for normothermic lung perfusion.
Dr Göran Dellgren, chief of the heart and lung transplantation unit at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, is excited about the prospect that more organs now can be available for this life saving therapy.
The total number of lungs transplanted using STEEN Solution™ is to date more than 80. Magnus Nilsson CEO of XVIVO Perfusion AB is happy that the STEEN Solution™ is now in clinical use in the company's home town to the benefit for patients waiting for new lungs.
June 9, 2011
Gothenburg
Magnus Nilsson
CEO
Queries should be addressed to:
Magnus Nilsson, CEO, phone +46 31 721 80 61
Anne-Lie Sveder, CFO, phone +46 31 721 80 13
Vitrolife is a global biotechnology/medical device Group that works with developing, manufacturing and selling advanced products and systems for the preparation, cultivation and storage of human cells, tissue and organs. The company has business activities within three product areas: Fertility, Transplantation and Stem Cell Cultivation. The Fertility product area works with nutrient solutions (media), cryopreservation products and advanced consumable instruments such as needles and pipettes, for the treatment of human infertility. The Transplantation product area works with solutions and systems to evaluate and maintain organs outside the body in order to select usable organs and keep them in optimal condition while waiting for transplantation. The Stem Cell Cultivation product area works with media and instruments to enable the use and handling of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.
Vitrolife today has approximately 220 employees and its products are sold in more than 85 markets. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and there are subsidiaries in USA, Australia, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Japan. Production facilities are located in Sweden and the USA. The Vitrolife share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Small Cap.
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