cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15676759
Chinese doctors treated an end-stage type 2 diabetic patient by implanting islet tissue derived in vitro from his own endoderm stem cells. The patient has been insulin-independent for 33 months.
I wanted to see exactly where they transplanted the islet cells, because my understanding was that transplanting them to the pancreas was not really viable for a number of reasons:
percutaneous transhepatic portal vein transplantation
Does this mean they implanted them on the surface of the main vein transporting blood out of the liver?
Percutaneous means “through the skin”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percutaneous
In general, percutaneous refers to the access modality of a medical procedure, whereby a medical device is introduced into a patient’s blood vessel via a needle stick.
Okay, through the skin, sure, but what about the other 4 words? They go in through the skin into a blood vessel… to where?
Percutaneous: means “through the skin”
Transhepatic: means “across the liver”
Portal vein: a major vein that carries blood from the intestines to the liver
Transplantation: surgical procedure involving the removal of an organ or tissue from one person (donor) and placing it in another person (recipient)
Just use LLM these days!
