Redundant only in appearance
A good example is the great saphenous vein, which runs along the leg. This is where varicose veins most often appear, and the body can cope quite well without it. However, for cardiac surgeons it is invaluable. But it turns out that apart from causing varicose veins, this vein saves our lives. (…) Because we use this vein to perform coronary artery bypass grafts, i.e. the so-called bypasses - explains Prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk, cardiac surgeon and transplantologist from the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Medical University of Warsaw.
So, do we have something inside us that we could really do without? The professor points to the coccyx. The coccyx, which we also have left after our evolutionary process (…), we don't need. Sometimes it only hurts when we fall off a chair. It's similar to Meckel's diverticulum, a small bulge in the intestine that affects about two percent of people. However, this little detail can be dangerous because, like an appendix, it may become inflamed and require surgery.
A body that repairs itself
The real champion of reconstruction is the liver. The professor talks about a patient who lost almost the entire organ in a car accident. Surgeons from the Medical University of Warsaw once removed a crushed liver, but kept a small fragment of it. They left a small fragment, transplanted a liver from a deceased donor to her so that it would function for a certain period, and probably after a month they transplanted the transplanted liver because the previous one had regenerated. She regenerated, that is, she grew - described the guest of the podcast "Open Lecture" on Radio RMF24.
We can also help the liver ourselves, without the involvement of a surgeon. You just need to stop, so to speak, eating fatty foods, stop drinking alcohol, and start leading a healthy lifestyle. And these organs regenerate, including the liver, he adds.
One donor, several lives saved
When the organ does not rebuild itself, a transplant may be the solution. Several organs can be taken from one deceased donor - kidneys, liver, heart or lungs - and, as the professor emphasizes, save up to eight people. The heart gives doctors the least time. The time from the moment of heart removal to the moment of implantation cannot exceed four hours. That is why the heart for transplantation is transported by an ambulance, a helicopter or even a plane.
Special devices in which the collected heart beats outside the human body are helpful. They can even restart a heart that has already stopped. The heart stops beating, i.e. the heart dies, but the heart muscle cells have their own dying time. The heart stops beating, dies and then we have half an hour to forty minutes to open such a person's chest, take out the dead heart, implant it in this machine and the heart starts beating in this machine - explains Prof. Kuśmierczyk.
