World’s First Baby Born Via Uterus Transplant From Deceased Donor Is Healthy

A healthy baby girl was recently born to a woman who received a uterus transplant from a deceased donor. The successful operation took place at the Hospital das Clínicas at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine in Brazil. The birth was also the result of the first uterus transplant conducted in Latin America.

The baby was successfully born at 35 weeks and three days and weighed around 6 pounds, according to a case study of the procedure published in the journal The Lancet on Dec. 4. The uterus transplant was conducted in September 2016, while the baby was born in December this year.

The 32-year-old mother, who was not named in the study, suffered a condition known as Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome. People who have this condition are born without a uterus. The donor, on the other hand, was 45 years old and had died of a stroke.

The actual procedure for the uterus transplant lasted 10.5 hours, starting from the time the uterus was removed from the deceased body until the womb was transplanted into the recipient. The whole procedure involved surgically connecting the donor’s uterus and recipient’s veins and arteries, ligaments and vaginal canals.

The recipient then required ample rest and was given medication that included antimicrobial and anti-blood clotting treatment. Five months later, it became apparent that the uterus was compatible with its new host and further tests proved no anomalies existed. The donor also started having regular menstruation at that time.

In the seventh month of her rest, the fertilized eggs were then implanted into the uterus. Ten days after the implantation, the woman became pregnant. All subsequent prenatal tests done after this period were successful.

Being both healthy, the mother and child were discharged from the hospital three days after birth. At the time of writing of the case study, the baby girl was 7 months and 20 days old and continues to breastfeed, the authors wrote in the study.

The doctors who performed the procedure are now optimistic that their success could serve as a landmark study which could see more organ transplants coming from dead donors. This is safer than previous transplants where organs were extracted from living donors, according to the doctors.

"The use of deceased donors could greatly broaden access to this treatment, and our results provide proof-of-concept for a new option for women with uterine infertility." Dr. Dani Ejzenberg, the lead author of the study, said.