skip to content skip to search skip to navigation Listen Live skip to logon

How many times can an organ be transplanted?

organ-transplant.jpgQuestion

If you have an organ transplant and it was transplanted again, how many times could you use one organ?
Jamie, Clapham

Answer

** Definitive **
Name: Isaac, Paddington
Qualification: Intensive care physician
Answer: It depends on the nature of the organ, but invariably organs that are transplanted have a definite shelf-life, because as soon as it’s transplanted, the rest of the immune system starts damaging the organ as the body recognises that it’s not its own. This is the reason you have to take drugs to suppress your immune system when you have a transplant. I’ve seen transplants lasting 15 years, but drugs are getting better all the time. Theoretically, how many bodies it is in should make no difference.

In this Section