When a patient's heart or lungs fail, time becomes the ultimate enemy. For Dr. Abbas Ardehali, Director of the Heart, Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Programs at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, that race against time has defined decades of groundbreaking research and innovation.
Ardehali's revolutionary work centers on extending the viability of donor organs through machine perfusion technology 鈥� essentially keeping hearts and lungs alive and functioning outside the human body for extended periods. This breakthrough research addresses one of transplant medicine's greatest challenges: the narrow window of time during which donor organs remain viable for transplantation.
Traditional organ preservation methods allow hearts to survive only four to six hours outside the body, severely limiting the pool of potential recipients and forcing rushed surgical procedures. Ardehali's pioneering research into "heart in a box" and similar lung preservation systems has fundamentally changed this equation. His work as principal investigator behind the technology that allows for the transportation of 鈥渂eating human hearts鈥� and 鈥渂reathing human lungs鈥� for extended periods has opened new possibilities for thousands of patients waiting for life-saving transplants.
This technology promises to expand the donor pool significantly, allowing organs to be transported greater distances and giving surgical teams more time to prepare for optimal outcomes. Moreover, this technology may improve the quality of the donor organs being transplanted and open new opportunities in 鈥渄onor organs enhancement鈥�.聽
Recent clinical trials included about 130 patients total, with approximately 20 transplants taking place at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Ardehali's innovative spirit doesn't stop at organ preservation with his efforts to make life-support treatment safer and more effective by letting doctors draw out and return blood through one small opening instead of two, giving patients with severe lung or heart failure more oxygen, faster recovery, and greater comfort.. He patented and developed a dual lumen cannula, a catheter that improves extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) outcomes, increasing oxygen delivery for patients with lung failure and improving heart support. This device, recently licensed by UCLA's Technology Development Group, exemplifies how his research translates directly into improved patient care.
His work embodies the kind of federally-funded research that transforms abstract scientific concepts into tangible, life-saving medical interventions.
For the tens of thousands of Americans on organ transplant waiting lists, Ardehali's research offers offers a vital new path forward as he advances trnsplant technology that is saving lives and reshaping what鈥檚 possible in modern organ transplantation.
A pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Ardehali specializes in heart and lung transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. His work involves the development of cutting-edge approaches to organ preservation and transplantation, improving outcomes for patients with advanced heart and lung disease.
