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TransMedics initiates PROTECT trial for liver transplantation

TransMedics, Inc. announced the initiation of the PROTECT clinical trial, in which the company’s new OCS Liver technology has been successfully used in the first human liver transplant, according to a press release.

The trial is the first in the U.S. to use OCS Liver technology (TransMedics, Inc.) for transplantation. The technology uses warm oxygenated perfusion on standard and expanded-criteria donor livers. This technique will be compared with cold storage processes and post-transplant clinical outcomes throughout the trial and will take place at up to 20 transplant centers across the region, according to the release.

“It is our hope that the ability to preserve a liver in the manner offered by the OCS technology will save lives by making the livers we use function better and by making more organs available for transplantation,” James F. Markmann, MD, chief of transplant surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and investigator on the trial, said in the release.

Disclosure: Healio.com/Hepatology was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures of Markmann at the time of publication.