A one-year-old child from Kenya underwent an unusual liver transplant at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital where the liver had to be joined directly to the heart. A segment of the liver was donated by the child’s father.
Paul was suffering from biliary atresia since birth, a condition in which the bile ducts (required to drain the bile from the liver to the intestine) were not developed.
This is the among the most common reasons for liver failure in infants. The condition can be treated if detected within two months of birth. However, in Paul’s case, the condition went undetected. The only option for him was a liver transplant. The procedure was conducted at the Centre for Liver and Biliary Surgery.
Professor Anupam Sibal, group medical director, said: “Paul’s case was high-risk because he was severely malnourished, was born with a complex anatomy and his liver failure was rapidly worsening. He needed an urgent transplant. We took on the challenge with such a small baby weighing only six kg and with several risk factors as that was his only hope.” Prof. Sibal added that the child had made a remarkable recovery and was discharged two weeks after the surgery. The operation took 12 hours and involved a medical team of 50 people.
Dr. Subash Gupta, chief transplant surgeon at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, conducted the operation.
“The child did not have the inferior vena cava — the vein which drains blood from the limbs, kidneys and the heart. The living donor liver transplant in itself is quite a difficult operation, the absent of IVC posed an even greater challenge. Working from the abdomen, the lower-most part of the right atrium was freed so that the liver could be rejoined to the portion of the heart where the IVC would have joined. The lateral segment of the father’s liver was implanted in the child after removing his native liver.”
The boy, a resident of Kenya, was suffering from biliary atresia, a common reason for liver failure in children
