From Medical Device Network

The SherpaPak cardiac transport system looks like little more than a lightweight white box on wheels, but it might just save your life. Developed by medtech firm Paragonix, the SherpaPak could well be set to revolutionise the future of heart transplantation.

It’s not just the surgeries to extract and implant donor hearts that prove tricky – the mere logistics of transporting a heart represent a race against time. The organ’s time spent out of the body is best kept to under four hours, with donor hearts unlikely to still be viable once they reach the six-hour mark. That’s not a lot of time to remove an organ, get it to the recipient and complete a complicated surgery. Plus, myriad upsets can occur that can render the donor heart unviable even before it reaches its destination.

The SherpaPak aims to overcome these barriers by extending the amount of time hearts can be in transit and giving clinical teams full oversight of the organ’s status. A recent case report at Stanford University found that the heart could easily survive outside of the body in the SherpaPak for five and a half hours. Medical Device Network caught up with Paragonix CEO Dr Lisa Anderson to find out more about the development of the device and the implications for the transplant field.

Read the full interview at – Paragonix Q&A: the next generation of donor organ transport