National
Groundbreaking windpipe operation in Barcelona
By h.b.
Nov 19, 2008 - 7:25 AM

Ground-breaking use of stem cells has resulted in the Colombian woman, Claudia Lorena Castillo, being given a new windpipe at a clinic in Barcelona.

She lives in the city with her two children, and went to the doctor four years ago with a persistent cough which was eventually diagnosed as serious tuberculosis. When her condition got worse the specialists at the Clinic Hospital in the city had two options, removing a lung, or trying to repair her windpipe which was seriously obstructed by infection.

Italian doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, based in Barcelona, came up with the suggestion of the operation which has been described as a ‘medical breakthrough without precedent’.

Using stem cell tissue engineering, and with help from specialists at Bristol University in the U.K. and others in Padua and Milan, a new windpipe has been created and now put in place.

The great advantage of the procedure is that there is no need for immune-suppression drugs. Full details of the procedure have been published in The Lancet. (health story)