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WHAT IS A STOMACH TRANSPLANT?

Stomach transplants are rare and usually involve a patient receiving a 'new' digestive system, including a pancreas, spleen, liver and intestines.

This has been carried out due to severe bowel obstruction.

Stomach transplants alone are rarely performed due to the organ being 'non essential' - i.e. people can live without a stomach if they are fed via a tube.

Transplants require patients take drugs, usually for the rest of their life, to suppress their immune system.

These increase their risk of infections and even cancer. 

Transplants are therefore only carried out when necessary to prolong life or improve quality of life. 

Anne Paschke, a spokesperson for the Virginia-based Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, told NBC News 45 multivisceral (digestive system) transplants were performed in the US in 2005.

And 36 were carried out between January and June 2006.

At the time, around 300 of these transplants had reportedly been done nationwide, of which half were at a hospital in Miami. 

It takes around three months to recover from the procedure.

Most of the patients (65 per cent) are children. 

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