Xia Suisheng (Chinese: 夏穗生; 19 April 1924 – 16 April 2019) was a Chinese surgeon and pioneer in organ transplantation.

Xia Suisheng
夏穗生
Born(1924-04-19)April 19, 1924
Yuyao, Zhejiang, China
DiedApril 16, 2019(2019-04-16) (aged 94)
Alma materTongji Medical College
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
OccupationSurgeon
Known forOrgan transplant pioneer

Biography

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Xia was born in April 1924 in Yuyao, Zhejiang, China.[1] He attended high school in Shanghai, and studied at Tongji Medical College, which moved from Shanghai to Wuhan in the early 1950s. After graduation, he became a surgeon at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan.[1]

In 1963, American surgeon Thomas Starzl performed the world's first human liver transplantation, but the core techniques were not disclosed. In 1972, Xia began experimenting with liver transplantation on dogs. He and his colleagues spent five years performing 130 dog liver transplants.[2]

On 30 December 1977, Xia performed a successful human liver transplant on a woman with late-stage liver cancer.[3] Soon after, he performed a liver transplant on a male patient, who survived for a then-record 264 days.[2]

He later researched transplantation of other organs. He successfully performed China's first pancreas transplantation in 1984, China's first spleen transplantation in 1989, and Asia's first successful multiple abdominal organ transplantation in 1995.[1]

Xia established China's first organ transplant research institute at Tongji Hospital.[1] He educated 44 doctoral students, 24 master's students, and 1 postdoctoral researcher.[3]

Xia died on 16 April 2019, three days before his 95th birthday.[2] He donated his corneas as well as 1 million yuan to Tongji Hospital for medical research.[3][1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "中国器官移植开创者夏穗生辞世". China News. 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  2. ^ a b c ""中国器官移植的拓荒者"夏穗生今日辞世,遗愿捐献眼角膜". Sohu (in Chinese). 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  3. ^ a b c Ma, Shu-an (2019-04-17). "陸器官移植學先驅夏穗生辭世 捐眼角膜與100萬用於研究". ETtoday (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 2019-04-17.