Machine repairs ‘poor quality’ liver, radically extends transplant viability

The Zurich team connects the donor liver to the game-changing perfusion machine. Photo: University Hospital Zurich

In January 2020 Zurich researchers, branded as the Liver4Life team, reported they had radically extended the time a donor liver could remain viable in storage – by keeping alive a number of “poor quality” livers for a week.

This was a big story that flew under the radar – probably because there was no actual transplant at the time.