Which body parts can be replaced?

[brokenportal]

Which body parts can be replaced by live ones and which ones can be replaced by mechanical ones. If you know them all then please list them, other wise list the exceptions that cant be transplanted or replaced.

[ed84c]

according to James bond hearts can be replaced.

[ecoli]

Hearts have been replaced. The only thing I can think of that can't theorhetically be replaced is the brain and other parts of the nervous system, whether synthetic or harvested from other people.

[Drug addict]

The problem at present is the fact that for a transplant to occur (with the exception of a kidney) someone has to die! In the future this could be solved by use of stem cells, but this is probably some way off.

 

An alternative to mechanical replacement is pharmacological replacement eg insulin, thyroxine, sex hormones, but obviously this is not ideal.

[-Demosthenes-]

I think the transplant of the lung hasn't been very perfected yet, you have about 10 years of life with a transplanted lung. Where as with a transplanted kidney you may live a completely normal life.

[ydoaPs]

Hearts have been replaced. The only thing I can think of that can't theorhetically be replaced is the brain and other parts of the nervous system, whether synthetic or harvested from other people.

 

i saw a Discovery Health program(it makes me an expert. lol) that was about this paralyzed guy that got a computer chip in his spine. it gave him the ability to move his leg. it was fairly old.

 

i saw another one where they basically hooked up this guy's brain to a computer.

[Drug addict]

Life expectancy after any form of transplant is not fantastic, partly due to the need to take heavy duty immunosupressants to prevent rejection - which of course makes you more vulnerable to infection. I'll try and dig out some stats, but I'm fairly sure that 10 years of life after a lung transplant is pretty good going.

[brokenportal]

Do you know why its only about 10 years for a lung? Do you know what the current standings and thoughts on perfecting the lung transplant are?

 

What about everything else, say a person needed a new artery, new veins, new lymph ducts, a new sino atrial node, a new finger bone, a new pineal gland, can all of those things be replaced ?

 

If you know or can find somebody that does know I would be much in your debt.

[Drug addict]

some stats on survival following lung transplantation from http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic2980.htm (there are some lovely pics if you scroll down to the bottom of the page)

 

The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and the St Louis International Lung Transplantation Registry report 1-year survival rates of 71% and 5-year survival rates of 45% following lung transplantation. Early mortality is caused by bacterial or CMV infections (35%)' date=' graft failure (13%), heart failure (9%), rejection (5%), bleeding (6%), anastomosis failure (5%), and other causes (27%).

 

Late mortality is caused by infections (30%), obliterative bronchiolitis (29%), malignancy (6%), respiratory failure (5%), bleeding (4%), and other causes (26%). Infections and obliterative bronchiolitis remain the 2 most challenging issues in the long-term follow-up of patients who have undergone lung transplants.

 

According to the registry of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year actuarial survival rates after lung transplantation are 70.7%, 54.8%, and 42.6%, respectively. Median survival is 3.7 years. These rates lag behind those of heart and liver transplantation, for which 5-year actuarial survival is approximately 70%.

 

Whether lung transplantation truly increases survival over the natural history of the underlying disease remains difficult to ascertain in the absence of randomized trials. A survival advantage has been reported for patients with cystic fibrosis and pulmonary fibrosis who have received transplants, but this advantage has not been demonstrated for patients with emphysema.

 

Patients are referred for transplantation at a point in the course of their disease at which death is considered likely within several years. Therefore, transplantation would be expected to confer a survival advantage. Severe dyspnea and poor quality of life can be additional considerations for lung transplantation.

 

The mortality rates are highest in the year following transplantation. The leading causes of early death are infections and graft failure. No significant difference in survival exists between recipients of SLTs versus recipients of sequential DLTs.[/quote']