Apollo Hospitals performed a rare liver transplant successfully on a six-and-a-half-month-old infant weighing 5.6 kilogramme, who was suffering from a congenital liver condition.
Manish C. Varma, the chief transplant surgeon who performed the transplant on Nitesh by taking a slice of his father’s liver on October 13, said that though liver transplants were common, a liver transplant on an infant weighing below 10 kg was rare cases any where in the world. Many believe it could be the first in South India.
For Nitesh’s parents, P. Nagaraju and Durga Prashanti of Bondarupeta village near Bhimavaram in West Godavari, their joy of being blessed with a son five years after their marriage turned into agony, as the infant’s condition deteriorated due to Biliary Atresia — a condition where the bile cannot drain from the liver through the bile ducts to the intestines. This results in the bile getting trapped in the liver and eventually leading to its failure.
The baby was born with jaundice, which is common, and Nitesh’s parents hoped it would subside in a few days. However, when the boy continued to show symptoms of jaundice and sluggish liver even after a few weeks, they consulted doctors. It was then diagnosed that Nitesh had a condition of blocked bile ducts.
Explaining the case to media persons, Dr. Varma said that normal jaundice by birth should resolve itself in a week or two. When it persists, one should examine other factors. Biliary Atresia was a rare condition — one in 10,000 to 15,000 children suffer from the same. Had the condition been diagnosed early, the practice would have been to go for a corrective surgery for the time being till the baby grows and gains weight, and then take up transplant to reduce risk.
But in the case of Nitesh, his liver was completely damaged, requiring a transplant immediately. While the surgery lasted six-and-a-half hours, the entire procedure, right from his father being wheeled in to take a slice of his liver to the baby being wheeled out after the surgery, took about 14 to 16 hours, Dr. Varma said.
He said the complex paediatric liver transplant required team work from specialists of multiple disciplines and excellent infrastructure available only in a few centres in the world.
The transplant cost Rs. 18 lakh, of which Rs. 13 lakh came from Chief Minister’s and Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, while the rest was funded by actor Allu Arjun when the couple approached him for help.
