Health
Surgeons Perform First Human Bladder Transplant
Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions.
The operation was performed earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California on a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer.
“I was a ticking time bomb,” the patient, Oscar Larrainzar, said on Thursday during a follow-up appointment with his doctors. “But now I have hope.”
The doctors plan to perform bladder transplants in four more patients as part of a clinical trial to get a sense of outcomes like bladder capacity and graft complications before pursuing a larger trial to expand its use.
Dr. Inderbir Gill, who performed the surgery along with Dr. Nima Nassiri, called it “the realization of a dream” for treating thousands of patients with crippling pelvic pain, inflammation and recurrent infections.
“There is no question: A potential door has been opened for these people that did not exist earlier,” said Dr. Gill, the chairman of the urology department at U.S.C.
Pushing the Envelope
Until now, most patients who undergo a bladder removal have a portion of their intestine repurposed to help them pass urine. Some receive an ileal conduit, which empties urine into a bag outside the abdomen, while others are given a so-called neobladder, or a pouch tucked inside the body that attaches to the urethra and allows patients to urinate more traditionally.
But bowel tissue, riddled with bacteria, is “inherently contaminated,” Dr. Gill said, and introducing it to the “inherently sterile” urinary tract leads to complications in up to 80 percent of patients, ranging from electrolyte imbalances to a slow reduction in kidney function. The loss of the intestinal segment can also cause new digestive issues.
Dr. Despoina Daskalaki, a transplant surgeon at Tufts Medical Center who was not involved in the new procedure, said advances in transplant medicine (from critical life-sustaining organs, like hearts and livers, to other body parts, like faces, hands, uteri and penises) had led doctors to start “pushing the envelope.”
“They’re asking: ‘Why do we have to put up with all the complications? Why don’t we try and give this person a new bladder?’” Dr. Daskalaki said.
In late 2020, Dr. Nassiri was in his fourth year of residency at the University of Southern California when he and Dr. Gill sat down in the hospital cafeteria to begin brainstorming approaches. After Dr. Nassiri began a fellowship on kidney transplantation at U.C.L.A., the two surgeons continued working together across institutions to test both robotic and manual techniques, practicing first on pigs, then human cadavers, and finally, human research donors who no longer had brain activity but maintained a heartbeat.
One of the challenges of transplanting a bladder was the complex vascular infrastructure. The surgeons needed to operate deep inside the pelvis of the donor to capture and preserve a rich supply of blood vessels so the organ could thrive inside the recipient.
“When we’re removing a bladder because of cancer, we basically just cut them. We do it in less than an hour on a near-daily basis,” Dr. Gill said. “For a bladder donation, that is a significantly higher order of technical intensity.”
The surgeons also chose to conjoin the right and left arteries — as well as the right and left veins — while the organ was on ice, so that only two connections were needed in the recipient, rather than four.
When their strategy was perfected in 2023, the two drew up plans for a clinical trial, which eventually would bring the world’s first recipient: Oscar.
An Ideal First Candidate
When Mr. Larrainzar walked into Dr. Nassiri’s clinic in April 2024, Dr. Nassiri recognized him. Almost four years earlier, Mr. Larrainzar, a husband and father of four, had been navigating end-stage kidney disease and renal cancer, and Dr. Nassiri helped remove both of his kidneys.
But Mr. Larrainzar had also survived urachal adenocarcinoma, a rare type of bladder cancer, and a surgery to resect the bladder tumor had left him “without much of a bladder at all,” Dr. Nassiri said. A normal bladder can hold more than 300 cubic centimeters of fluid; Mr. Larrainzar’s could hold 30.
Now, years of dialysis had begun to fail; fluid was building up inside his body. And with so much scarring in the abdominal region, it would have been difficult to find enough usable length of bowel to pursue another option.
“He showed up serendipitously,” Dr. Nassiri said, “but he was kind of an ideal first candidate for this.”
On a Saturday night earlier this month, Dr. Nassiri received a call about a potential bladder match for Mr. Larrainzar. He and Dr. Gill drove straight to the headquarters of OneLegacy, an organ procurement organization, in Azusa, Calif., and joined a team of seven surgeons working overnight to recover an array of organs from a donor.
The two brought the kidney and bladder to U.C.L.A., then stopped home for a shower, breakfast and a short nap. They completed the eight-hour surgery to give Mr. Larrainzar a new bladder and kidney later that day.
Dr. Nassiri said that kidney transplants can sometimes take up to a week to process urine, but when the kidney and bladder were connected inside Mr. Larrainzar, there was a great connection — “immediate output” — and his creatinine level, which measures kidney function, started to improve immediately. Mr. Larrainzar has already lost 20 pounds of fluid weight since the surgery.
The biggest risks of organ transplantation are the body’s potential rejection of the organ and the side effects caused by the mandatory immune-suppressing drugs given to prevent organ rejection. That is why, for Dr. Rachel Forbes, a transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who was not involved in the procedure, the excitement is more tempered.
“It’s obviously a technical advance,” she said, but “we already have existing options for people without bladders, and without the downside of requiring immunosuppression.” Unless a patient is — like Mr. Larrainzar — going to be on those medications anyway, “I would be a little bit nervous that you would be exchanging some complications for others,” she said.
A new bladder transplant also does not have nerve connections in the recipient, so while it works well as a storage organ, doctors did not know whether Mr. Larrainzar would ever be able to sense a full bladder, let alone hold and empty it naturally. They spoke about catheters, abdomen maneuvers and eventually developing an on-demand bladder stimulator to help with the release.
But at a follow-up appointment on Thursday morning — just two days after Mr. Larrainzar was discharged from the hospital — Dr. Nassiri removed the catheter and gave him fluids, and Mr. Larrainzar immediately felt that he could urinate.
Dr. Nassiri called it a miracle, then phoned Dr. Gill, who was in a U.S.C. operating room, and exclaimed two words: “He peed!”
“No way! What the hell?” Dr. Gill said. “My jaw is on the floor.”
After finishing the surgery, Dr. Gill drove straight to U.C.L.A. and watched Mr. Larrainzar do it again.
“Of course, this is very, very early. Let’s see how everything goes,” Dr. Gill cautioned. “But it’s the first time he has been able to pee in seven years. For all of us, this is huge.”
Mr. Larrainzar, exhausted, smiled, and Dr. Nassiri brought him a bottle of mineral water to celebrate.
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The time of day patients receive cancer treatments could have an impact on the outcome, a new study suggests.
New research published in Cancer, the official journal of the American Cancer Society, found that patients who received standard immunochemotherapy for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) earlier in the day saw “significantly greater benefit” compared to those who got the same treatment later in the afternoon.
In the study, researchers from the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine at Central South University, China, analyzed data from nearly 400 patients who were treated between May 2019 and October 2023.
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All patients had ES-SCLC and received first-line immunotherapy (atezolizumab or durvalumab) along with chemotherapy, according to a press release.
“Our study found that patients who received immunochemotherapy before 3:00 PM had substantially longer progression-free survival and overall survival,” lead study author Dr. Yongchang Zhang, medical oncologist and chief director at the Hunan Cancer Hospital in Changsha, China, told Fox News Digital.
The time of day patients receive cancer treatments could have an impact on the outcome, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, earlier administration was associated with a 52% lower risk of cancer progression and a 63% lower risk of death.”
“It was quite surprising that simply changing the infusion time could lead to such substantial survival benefits for patients,” he added.
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The findings align with the idea of chronotherapy, which suggests that the body’s natural daily rhythms affect how the immune system works and how drugs act in the body.
This means cancer treatments may be more effective at certain times of day, likely because immune activity and drug processing change over the 24-hour cycle, the study suggests.
“This study should not prompt patients to delay treatment or panic about appointment times.”
Based on the findings, Zhang recommends scheduling immunotherapy infusions in the early part of the day.
“Research across multiple cancer types has shown that patients receiving immunotherapy earlier in the day experience longer survival,” he noted. “Our findings in non-small cell lung cancer, supported by both multicenter retrospective studies and prospective clinical trials, confirm this pattern.”
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Gilberto Lopes, M.D., chief of medical oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noted that previous, similar studies in non-small cell lung cancer have shown better outcomes when immunotherapy is administered earlier in the day, reinforcing the idea that the immune system follows circadian rhythms that influence treatment response.
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“In that sense, the results are biologically plausible and consistent with a growing body of evidence across cancers,” Lopes, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. “What is striking is that this signal now appears in small cell lung cancer, a disease where outcomes have been notoriously difficult to improve.”
All patients had ES-SCLC and received first-line immunotherapy (atezolizumab or durvalumab) along with chemotherapy. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations, as detailed in the published study. Most notably, the study was retrospective and observational, meaning it could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between timing of treatments and outcomes.
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With this type of study, Lopes said, “investigators start with an idea and go back and review patient records.” In this case, other factors can have an impact on the outcome, according to the oncologist.
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“For instance, did patients who come early in the day have a better quality of life, performance status and socioeconomic status and that is what made the difference?” he asked. “Or something else we don’t know? These results need to be confirmed prospectively to eliminate known and unknown sources of bias.”
“The next step is prospective testing, but until then, this research invites us to rethink something medicine usually ignores: timing itself,” an oncologist said. (iStock)
Zhang also pointed out that this was a single-center study including only Chinese patients. “To obtain more definitive evidence, prospective clinical trials conducted across multiple countries and diverse populations are needed,” he told Fox News Digital.
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to conduct randomized trials to confirm these preliminary findings and pinpoint optimal treatment windows based on individual patients’ chronotypes (internal body clocks).
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“This study should not prompt patients to delay treatment or panic about appointment times,” Lopes cautioned. “But it raises an important, low-cost question for oncology systems: If scheduling flexibility exists, should earlier infusion times be preferred?”
“The next step is prospective testing, but until then, this research invites us to rethink something medicine usually ignores: timing itself.”
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A widely prescribed opioid painkiller showed limited effectiveness and increased risk of negative effects in a new analysis published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
The study examined tramadol, a common prescription opioid used to treat chronic pain.
Tramadol has historically been perceived as a safer or less addictive opioid, which has contributed to its widespread use in chronic pain treatment, the study authors noted.
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“Often, we may use tramadol to avoid more addictive drugs like other opioids, though in fact tramadol is a synthetic opioid. It is much milder,” Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, told Fox News Digital.
In the new analysis, researchers used data from 19 randomized clinical trials involving 6,506 adults with conditions including osteoarthritis, chronic low back pain, neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia. All the studies compared tramadol to a placebo treatment.
The level of pain relief associated with tramadol fell below the threshold typically considered clinically important. (iStock)
Overall, tramadol led to a small decrease in pain, but the amount of relief was less than what is usually considered clinically meaningful, the authors reported.
“It is notable how minimal the pain reduction was and how clearly the study highlighted the elevated risk of serious adverse events, even over relatively short trial durations,” Alopi M. Patel, M.D., pain medicine physician at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York City, told Fox News Digital. (Patel was not involved in the study.)
MORE PEOPLE TURN TO ACUPUNCTURE FOR BACK PAIN AS STUDY SHOWS RELIEF
Participants receiving tramadol experienced a higher risk of adverse events, both serious and non-serious, compared with those receiving a placebo.
Serious adverse events primarily included cardiovascular events, such as chest pain, coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. The authors concluded that tramadol likely increases the risk of heart-related issues.
Serious adverse events were primarily driven by cardiovascular outcomes, including chest pain, coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. (iStock)
The authors concluded that the benefits of tramadol for chronic pain are small and that the harms likely outweigh the benefits. The findings call into question the use of tramadol for chronic pain conditions, they stated.
Study limitations
Most of the trials included in the analysis were short, with treatment periods ranging from two to 16 weeks and follow-up periods from three to 15 weeks.
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This limited the ability to assess long-term outcomes, the researchers acknowledged.
The authors reported that many outcomes had a high risk of bias, which may have exaggerated the apparent benefits and minimized the reported harms.
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The trials involved several different types of chronic pain, but the data were not detailed enough to draw conclusions for any specific condition. This makes it “harder to generalize the findings to specific patient populations,” noted Patel.
Most trials were short in duration and compared tramadol only with a placebo — limiting conclusions about long-term effects and comparisons with other treatments. (iStock)
Though the study has value, Siegel said, “looking at slight increased rates of cancer or heart disease among those on the drug is completely misleading, because it is not controlled for other factors and there is no evidence or hint of causation.”
“You would have to first look at underlying characteristics of that group who took the meds.”
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The doctor also pointed out that the study “doesn’t compare [tramadol] with full-on opioids like Percocet.”
Experts emphasize that patients should not stop taking tramadol abruptly, as doing so can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Those looking to change their medication should consult a doctor.
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“I recommend that clinicians and patients engage in transparent, shared decision-making that considers tramadol’s modest benefits alongside its risks,” Patel advised.
Fox News Digital reached out to several manufacturers of tramadol requesting comment.
New flu strain emerging as a severe health threat
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to warn of a new strain of the flu that is spiking hospitalizations across the country and newfound risks of medical marijuana’s link to psychosis.
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A new form of the flu, which is highly contagious and aggressive, is sweeping the nation this season.
A mutation of influenza A H3N2, called subclade K, has been detected as the culprit in rising global cases, including in the U.S.
The World Health Organization stated on its website that the K variant marks “a notable evolution in influenza A (H3N2) viruses,” which some say calls into question the effectiveness of this season’s influenza vaccine against the strain.
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The K variant causes more intense flu symptoms, including fever, chills, headache, fatigue, cough, sore throat and runny nose, according to experts.
Multiple states in the northeast are reporting high rates of respiratory illness this month. (iStock)
Among 216 influenza A(H3N2) viruses collected since Sept. 28, 89.8% belonged to subclade K, a CDC report states.
The agency continues to release a weekly influenza surveillance report, tracking which states are seeing the most activity for outpatient respiratory illness.
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Below are the states and regions within the highest range of reported medical visits, not necessarily confirmed influenza cases, as of the week ending Dec. 13.
The CDC’s weekly influenza surveillance report, an outpatient respiratory illness activity map, based on data reported to ILINet for the week ending Dec. 13, 2025. (CDC FluView)
Very High (Level 1)
Very High (Level 2)
Very High (Level 3)
- New Jersey
- Rhode Island
- Louisiana
- Colorado
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High (Level 1)
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Michigan
- Idaho
- South Carolina
High (Level 2)
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High (Level 3)
- Washington, D.C.
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- Georgia
The CDC has estimated that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 flu deaths this season so far. The flu vaccine is recommended as the best line of defense against the virus.
The flu vaccine is recommended as the best line of defense against the virus. (iStock)
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Neil Maniar, professor of public health practice at Boston’s Northeastern University, shared details on the early severity of this emerging flu strain.
“It’s becoming evident that this is a pretty severe variant of the flu,” he said. “Certainly, in other parts of the world where this variant has been prevalent, it’s caused some severe illness, and we’re seeing an aggressive flu season already.”
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Subclade K is the “perfect storm” for an aggressive flu season, Maniar suggested, as vaccination rates overall are down, and it’s uncertain whether this year’s flu vaccine directly addresses this specific mutation.
“The vaccine is very important to get, but because it’s not perfectly aligned with this variant, I think that’s also contributing to some degree to the severity of cases we’re seeing,” he said. “We’re going in [to this flu season] with lower vaccination rates and a variant that in itself seems to be more aggressive.”
Subclade K has “caused some severe illness, and we’re seeing an aggressive flu season already,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Maniar stressed that it’s not too late to get the flu vaccine, as peak flu season has not yet arrived.
“The vaccine still provides protection against serious illness resulting from the subclade K variant that seems to be going around,” he said. “There are likely to be lots of indoor gatherings and other events that create risk of exposure, so protection is important.”
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Even healthy individuals can become seriously ill from the flu, Maniar noted, “so a vaccine is beneficial for almost everyone.”
“Individuals typically start to develop some degree of protection within a few days and gain the full benefit within about two weeks, so now is the time for anyone who hasn’t gotten the vaccine yet.”
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