Medicine
Challenges in Cadaveric Organ Preservation for Transplantation
Quick fact
The heart and lungs are the most time-sensitive organs, with safe preservation windows of only 4 to 6 hours, whereas kidneys can be preserved for up to 30 to 40 hours using conventional cold storage.
Why this is interesting
You’ve probably heard that a heart can only survive a few hours outside the body, but why is that? What makes a liver last longer than a heart, and can we stretch these limits?