Xenotransplantation Approximately 4500 Americans under the age of 65 could benefit each year from heart transplatantion, yet only 2000 human hearts are available annually. This problem and many more could be solved in the near future due to a procedure called xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is the ability to adapt animal organs for transplantation into humans. It all started in 1682 when a Russian physician reportedly repaired the skull of a wounded noblemen using some bone from a dog, from here nothing really happened until 1903 when a french surgeon inserted a slice of rabbit kidney into a child suffering from ki