Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Transplant, Surgical

• The history of transplants
• Words to Know
• Studies in rejection
• Advances lead to successes
• Current state of transplantation

A surgical transplant involves removing organs or tissues from one person and replacing them with corresponding ones from another part of that person's body or from another person. The idea of surgical transplantation dates back several centuries, but it has become a practical medical approach only in the last few decades of the twentieth century. The main reason is that the body naturally rejects foreign tissue placed inside it. Only since the mid-twentieth century have doctors begun to learn more about the body's immune system and how to suppress it's natural rejection response.