Beyond Transplantation

It is an honor for me to present the Third Annual Samuel Jason Mixter Lecture before this distinguished audience. The subject of this report is the field of transplantation in its broadest definition: what has been achieved, and what may lie ahead. It is appropriate that this summary be presented in this forum, since many of the creative insights and innovations have come from New England surgeons. I will focus on a few of these contributions, but this in no way is intended to diminish the impact of the efforts of many others, both here in New England as well as in other centers in the United States and abroad. In simple terms, surgeons treat patients by taking things out, putting things in, or moving things around. Organ transplantation is an extreme form of reconstructive surgery, and involves replacing lost function by putting something in. After years of careful experimental