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Windpipe transplant success in UK child
"It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway that has ever been replaced"
- Professor Martin Birchall, University College London
A 10-year-old British boy has become the first child to undergo a windpipe transplant with an organ crafted from his own stem cells.
It is hoped that using the boy's own tissue in the nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital will cut the risk of rejection.
The world's first tissue-engineered windpipe transplant was done in Spain in 2008 but with a shorter graft.
Doctors say the boy is doing well and breathing normally.