Greek doctor from Cephalonia Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis performed the first uterus transplant in the US, giving hope to millions of women around the world who cannot procreate or who might have uterine cancer.
The operation took place at the Cleveland Clinic by a surgical team whose leader was Dr. Tzakis, and took nine hours, using a uterus from a deceased organ donor.
Dr. Tzakis has performed 4,000 to 5,000 transplants of kidneys, livers and other abdominal organs. To prepare for uterus transplants, he traveled to Sweden and worked with doctors at the University of Gothenburg, the only ones in the world to have performed the procedure successfully so far. Nine women have had the operation in Sweden, with the transplants taken from living donors. At least four recipients have had babies, who were born healthy though premature. About 50,000 women in the United States are thought to be candidates for transplanted uteruses
The recipient, 26, is not being identified to protect her privacy. The procedure’s purpose is to enable women born without a uterus, or who had theirs removed, to become pregnant and give birth. The patient will have to wait a year before trying to become pregnant, letting her heal and giving doctors time to adjust the doses of medication she needs to prevent organ rejection.
In the meantime, the doctors will adjust the doses of medication she needs to prevent organ rejection. The patient will also need in vitro fertilization to become pregnant. Before the transplant, the patient had eggs removed surgically, fertilized with her husband’s sperm and frozen. The embryos will be transferred into her uterus.
The transplant will be temporary, as after the woman has had one or two babies, the uterus will be removed so that the patient can stop taking anti-rejection drugs.
The Cleveland hospital’s ethics panel has given permission to perform the procedure 10 times, as an experiment and officials will then decide whether to continue, and whether to offer the operation as a standard procedure.
The clinic is still screening women who may be candidates for the operation.
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