Research progress on the role of normothermic machine perfusion in the preservation of severed limbs

Limb dismemberment injuries are common in clinical practice, and safe and effective protection of the dismembered limb is the key to successful limb replantation. Normothermic machine perfusion has made significant breakthrough in the field of organ transplantation, which may maintain the active function of organs and tissues for a long period of time and prolong the preservation time. These findings have been validated in large animal models and clinical trials. Meantime, this technology is expected to provide novel reference for the preservation and functional recovery of severed limbs. Therefore, this paper reviews the problems of static cold preservation in the preservation of disarticulated limbs, the development history of mechanical perfusion, the current status of clinical application of ambient mechanical perfusion of disarticulated limbs as well as the problems to be solved, and looks forward to the direction of its development and the prospect of its clinical application, with a view to promoting the wide application of this technology in the clinic.