Hopeful Start for First Uterus Transplant Surgery in U.S.
On Feb. 24, the patient, a 26-year-old woman from Texas, became the first in the United States to receive a uterus transplant, in a nine-hour operation here at the Cleveland Clinic. The women has only disclosed her first name, Lindsay, to the public to protect her family: a 26 year old husband and three adopted children. Lindsay realized at 16, after not receiving a regular menstrual cycle, that she did not have a uterus. It is believed that “between 3 percent and 5 percent of women of childbearing age worldwide are estimated to be infertile” for various reasons, and “about 50,000 women in the United States are thought to be potential transplant candidates”. While always wanting to experience birth, Lindsay was overjoyed when she learned of this new experimental procedure and signed up immediately. Dr. Tzakis, who led the team which performed the surgery, spent time in Sweden to learn from doctors at the University of Gothenburg, who are the only ones in the world to have performed successful uterine transplants. The procedure itself implants a working uterus in the place of a damaged or non-existing uterus. Blood vessels are the then attached to allow the uterus to function but nerves are not connected so the recipient cannot feel the usual cramps and contractions. The uterus is also not connected to an ovary, however, the patient can because pregnant in vitro with eggs removed before the surgery. To prevent rupturing the new uterus or the surgical bindings, the doctors are requiring Lindsay to wait a year before becoming pregnant and the baby must be delivered via c-section. This cautionary year also allows the doctors to perfect the anti-virus and anti-infection medication doses. Currently, the biggest opposition to the procedure are moral and ethical issues. Small claims were made that the risk of infection was dangerous but that argument was nearly irrelevant due to the efficiency and cautionary measures taken in today’s surgical proceedings. On the issue of ethics, due to the increased acceptance that transplants are justified not only to save lives, but also to improve the quality of life, “the Cleveland Clinic’s ethics panel has given the hospital permission to perform 10 uterine transplants in women ages 21 to 39.” Dr. Tzakis, who led the team who performed the surgery, spent time in Sweden to learn from doctors at the University of Gothenburg, who are the only ones in the world to have performed successful uterine transplants. With the success of Lindsay procedure comes yet another new field for medical and biological progress.
Medical advances such as the uterus transplant are the just the beginning. Soon, new procedures will arise for transplanting or fixing other organs until medical professionals will be able to repair or replace any organ in the human body. The sheer magnitude of the amount of people who can be saved or helped in some way is unimaginable. For instance, as stated before, “between 3 percent and 5 percent of women of childbearing age worldwide are estimated to be infertile.” Up to 356 Million women could possibly benefit from just this procedure alone.
This article was extremely well written and even provided videos and diagrams to aid with difficult concepts such as the actual result of the surgery and how it was conducted. Denise Grady, the author, is a very experienced journalist in the field of medical and biological advance after having written over 700 article for the New York Times since 1998. The information is well cited and the article itself comes from the New York Times web site, a very reliable source.
Citation:
Grady, Denise. "Hopeful Start for First Uterus Transplant Surgery in U.S."The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Mar. 2016. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/health/uterus-transplant-cleveland-clinic.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0>.
AP Biology Ethan Reich
ReplyDeleteCEC #12 3/17/16
For my current event comment, I read James’ review of the article, “Hopeful Start for First Uterus Transplant Surgery in U.S.” by Denise Grady. This review was very strong from the start, and there were three main things that I especially admired about it. First, the introductory paragraph was extremely informative and provided the base upon which I could understand the rest of the review. A tremendous job was done including all the significant details, and the review flowed as such. Next, the review was constantly striving towards utilizing quotes, like “the Cleveland Clinic’s ethics panel has given the hospital permission to perform 10 uterine transplants in women ages 21 to 39.” By quoting the article directly, it felt like James was bringing the reader directly into the review. Meanwhile, he was adding direct backup and authority to the points he was making. Finally, the review did a solid job at presenting non-biased statistics for consideration. Since this article is about the milestone first uterus transplant, James wrote that between 3 and 5% of the world’s female population within childbearing age were expected to be infertile. Without this statistic, it would have been hard for me to conceptualize the tremendousness of this accomplishment.
While this review was indeed persuasive and strong, there were two points I would suggest as constructive criticism. First, although the introductory paragraph was thorough, it felt often like certain pieces of superfluous information existed, and their being omitted would have made the introductory paragraph that much better. That conciseness, sharpness, and lack of length allows that reader to lock in. Second, I personally would have appreciated a more in-depth analysis of the article. While the implications of uterine implants were touched on, I felt like James could have gone deeper to persuade his readers further of the arguments he was professing.
Overall, however, this review was excellent. Initially, coming into this, I had no idea that uterus transplants were even a “thing,” let alone a concept that had been researched for decades and was just now being implemented. In addition, James taught me the ins and outs of uterus transplant surgery by going through the procedural steps in his introductory paragraph. While I would never trust myself performing this important of a surgery, it certainly was interesting to learn about a topic that I had no prior knowledge about. Great job James!