ABSTRACT
In 1954, there was a major step forward in the story of human organ transplantation – the successful transplant of a kidney from one identical twin to another. Its success proved that, if only the difficult immunological barrier could be overcome by some means or another, then organ transplantation in man could be a feasible proposition. Of the solid organs, the kidney was the first to be used in experimental and then in human transplantation. To produce an ‘artificial kidney’ that will filter out waste products from the blood, a dialysing membrane is required. The patient was dialysed on the artificial kidney, which improved his condition so that further investigations could be carried out. In 1874, Carl Thiersch published a paper describing his technique of skin grafting using a wafer-thin film of epidermis and sliver of underlying dermis. The technical problems of grafting the vascular and biliary systems of the donor liver into the recipient are complex.
