一般来说,活体器官在移植的过程中会严密冷藏起来以保持"新鲜",保质期大约是6小时左右,这也是小说和电影里经常描写到要用救护车,直升机甚至私人飞机来紧急运输待移植器官的原因.然而,现在有了一种先进的技术让装在盒子里的心脏在体外继续跳动.

Daily Mail: Transplant surgeons are using a pioneering technology that keeps a donor heart pumping outside the body.

Dubbed the 'heart in a box', the device keeps the organ 'alive' from the moment it is removed until it is placed in a recipient.

Traditionally, all donor organs are placed in a cool-box and surrounded by ice to prevent them deteriorating on their journey between hospitals. Not only does this extend how long a donor heart can be kept outside the body, but it allows specialists to assess if it is suitable for transplant.

Ann Hickey is Medical Director of Heart Transplant Program.

But over the past 12 months, surgeons at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, have carried out 25 heart transplant operations in which the patient received an organ that had been transported and prepared for transplantation using the groundbreaking Organ Care System (OCS).

It simulates the conditions of the human body, pumping oxygenated blood inside the heart so it can continue to function as it would inside a living person.

The technology increases the time the organ can be maintained outside the body to at least eight hours, compared with a maximum of three to four hours on ice. This means hearts can be retrieved from further afield.