A team of doctors in Sweden have successfully replaced a major blood vessel in a 10-year-old girl using a vein that was grown by her stem cells.

The girl was struggling with poor blood flow between her intestines and liver. The report said that a vein was taken from a dead person, its cells were removed and it was added with the cells of the girl before it was used to replace in the girl’s body. Doctors at the University of Gothenburg and Shalgrenska University Hospital used a process known as "decellularisation" to treat the patient.

Doctors said that the treatment has ensured a significant improvement in the quality of life for the child. The blockage in the major blood vessel that links intestines and the liver can cause health problems like internal bleeding and even death in the child. Other treatments including using artificial grafts to bypass the blockage did not succeed in treating the patient.

The doctors said, “The new stem-cell derived graft resulted not only in good blood flow rates, but also in strikingly improved quality of life for the patient.”