DALLAS, Texas – Today, the team at Baylor University Medical Center's uterus transplant program—the largest of its kind in the world—published the results of an eight-year trial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The Dallas Uterus Transplant Study (DUETS), conducted through Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, was designed to assess the long-term outcomes of uterus transplantation in women with a dysfunctional or absent uterus, known as uterine factor infertility.
The transplant surgeries in DUETS were performed between September 2016 and August 2019. Of the 20 uterus transplants, 14 resulted in at least one live birth. None of the successful births resulted in congenital abnormalities or developmental delays in the children born in the trial.
"With the results published today, we can now confidently say this procedure is not only safe for the donors, recipients and the children born via a transplanted uterus, but it is also a viable and successful treatment," said Liza Johannesson, MD, corresponding author and director of uterus transplant at Baylor University Medical Center. "It gives hope to the countless number of women who previously had no other option for treating this form of infertility."
An accompanying editorial in JAMA described DUETS as a "seminal" study and pointed out that the success rate for a previously untreatable condition is comparable to the probability of a live birth after one in vitro fertilization treatment in favorable candidates. Women in the study traditionally would have had to choose between adoption or surrogacy. The procedure now allows them to carry their own biological child.
The study noted that there were some complications for donors and recipients. Twenty-two percent of living donors required corrective surgery and 55% of recipients experienced at least one complication. However, no persistent effects were reported in the follow-up.
"It is our hope that these findings will help inform medical teams at other centers who wish to open a uterus transplant program so that this treatment can be more widely available to the millions of women with uterine factor infertility and wish to carry and give birth to their own children," added Giuliano Testa, MD, chief of abdominal transplant and chairman of the Baylor Scott & White Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute in North Texas. Testa is the principal investigator of DUETS.
Along with Testa and Johannesson, other Transplant Institute authors included Greg McKenna, MD; Anji Wall, MD; Johanna Bayer, MD; Seung Hee Lee, MD; Eric Martinez, MD; and Amar Gupta, MD. Ann Marie Warren, PhD, of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute and Robert Gunby, MD, of Baylor University Medical Center were co-authors.
Baylor University Medical Center's uterus transplant program was the first to deliver a baby in the United States to a mother who received a transplanted uterus. It was also the first in the world to perform uterus transplantation outside of a clinical trial. The team has performed 33 surgeries and delivered 22 babies. For more information, visit:
BSWHealth.com/UterusTransplant
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About Baylor Scott & White Health
As the largest not-for-profit health system in the state of Texas, Baylor Scott & White promotes the health and well-being of every individual, family and community it serves. It is committed to making quality care more accessible, convenient and affordable through its integrated delivery network, which includes the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance and its leading digital health platform – MyBSWHealth. Through 51 hospitals and more than 1,200 access points, including flagship academic medical centers in Dallas, Fort Worth and Temple, the system offers the full continuum of care, from primary to award-winning specialty care. Founded as a Christian ministry of healing more than a century ago, Baylor Scott & White today serves more than three million Texans. For more information, visit: BSWHealth.com
