12 hours, 5 transplants, 5 new lives

July 10, 2014 05:07 am | Updated 05:07 am IST - CHENNAI:

The patients who underwent the split liver transplant along with Dr. Mohamed Rela (right) — Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

The patients who underwent the split liver transplant along with Dr. Mohamed Rela (right) — Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

In the space of 12 short hours, five organ transplants were successfully performed at Global Health City, with all the patients doing well.

“While it is logistically difficult to coordinate so many procedures at the same time under the same roof, we wanted to make maximum use of all the organs available. We had already planned a live donor transplant on that day, when a cadaver donor became available. Since cadaver donor organs have to be harvested and used quickly, we decided to perform all the transplants on the same day,” said Mohamed Rela, director, Institute for Liver Disease and Transplantation, at a press conference on Wednesday.

Dr. Rela explained that a total of eight procedures were conducted. Apart from the five transplants, there was also the harvesting of the two kidneys and the splitting of the liver into two grafts.

Of the five recipients, four received organs from the deceased donor – two kidneys and a liver split in two, while one patient received a liver transplant from a living donor.

Dr. Rela said the deceased donor liver transplant surgery was unique, as this was the first time in the country a liver had been split between two adults. “Normally, a liver is split between an adult and a child mainly because its volume is not sufficient for two adults, and would leave one disadvantaged. However, in this case, we managed to give the second portion also to an adult who was in desperate need. This is a technically complicated procedure and even in the West, performed rarely,” he said.

V. Chandrasekaran, head of the nephrology department, explained that as per cadaver organ transplant rules, the second kidney was offered to other hospitals in the city first. “However, since the donor had had slight renal dysfunction, no other hospital wanted it. And so, we decided to transplant it in one of our patients. This was the patient’s second transplant, the first having failed after 20 years. He is doing well now,” Dr. Chandrasekaran said.

The doctors said that the surgeries involved a lot of team work and coordination as technical capability as each procedure depended on the timely completion of the one before it.

“The idea is to use as many organs as possible and to promote more donations,” Dr. Rela said.

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