Team offers new hope for transplant patients

A medical team at a hospital in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, has successfully transplanted a small intestine into an 18-year-old man, overcoming several challenges in completing the notoriously difficult operation.

Wu Guosheng, a medical professor and the senior doctor on the team that carried out the operation, said the facility, Xi'an Xijing Hospital, has only successfully completed 10 such operations. Those that were successful dramatically improved patients' quality of life and life expectancy, with one patient still doing well after 18 years.

But, Wu said, many small intestine transplants in the past did not work because of the risk of rejection of the donated tissue.