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Sicilian Culture: News & Views

Padua Hospital First in Stem Cell Transplant in Open Heart Surgery
From Italy-News.net

April 2002 - - A team of doctors from the Cardiac Surgery Unit of a Padua hospital made history yesterday when it performed a transplant of stem cells into a patient’s heart.

The team had first taken some 600 million stem cells from a 70-year-old patient’s hip bone a week ago, then selected and processed the cells and subsequently transplanted them into his heart.

It took 30 separate injections during the open-heart surgery procedure that lasted four hours.

It was the first time that stem cells, which regenerate tissue and repair damage, had been transplanted directly into a patient’s heart.

Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia, declared his support for using stem cells to repair tissue in lieu of heart transplants which, he said speaking at a separate conference in Rome, "will never be sufficient for all the waiting lists."

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