In 2020, Rebecca Flyckt and colleagues published “First Birth from a Deceased Donor Uterus in the United States: From Severe Graft Rejection to Successful Cesarean Delivery,” hereafter “First Birth from a Deceased Donor,” in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In the article, Flyckt and colleagues explain that they performed one of the first uterus transplantations with a uterus from a deceased donor in the United States and detail how they did so successfully. All deceased donors in the study were considered brain-dead, not cardiac-dead. Uterus transplantation from a deceased donor is a surgical procedure in which a researcher transplants a healthy uterus from a brain-dead, deceased donor into a recipient with a diseased or absent uterus. Prior to 2020, researchers performed several uterus transplantations with live donors that resulted in live births, but there was only one recorded live birth from a deceased uterus donor. Flyckt and colleagues provide summary data about uterus transplantations from deceased donors and compare the efficacy of transplantations from live donors to those from deceased donors. “First Birth from a Deceased Donor” advances the techniques that can make uterus transplants from deceased donors successful, which allows people with uterine disorders the opportunity to become pregnant and have children.
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