Jipmer became one of the few centres in the country which has the facility for multi-organ transplantation after it performed a liver transplant recently.
The operation was performed on a 38-year-old man from Puducherry, who was suffering from liver cirrhosis. Dr. Biju Pottakkat, additional professor and Head of the Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and head of the liver transplant unit at Jipmer, said that the liver was retrieved from a victim of a road accident. “The family of the victim of the accident expressed their willingness to donate the organs for transplant. His kidneys and corneas were also transplanted to benefit another three patients,” he said.
The operation which extended for 12 hours involved a team of eight surgeons, four anaesthesiologists and a team of nursing and technical staff. Four operation theatres were utilised at the same time. The patient was managed in a dedicated liver transplant intensive care unit for the last one week. One of the crucial parts of the surgery was administering anaesthesia to the patient.
Guided by senior professor Dr. Ashok Badhe under the leadership of Dr. Sandeep Mishra, additional professor and head, Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, anaesthesia was administered by Dr. Satyaprakash M.V.S (additional professor), Dr. Lenin Babu E (additional professor), Dr. Ramesh Panga (senior resident) and Dr. Diana Thomas (junior resident).
“Anaesthesia management of patients undergoing liver transplantation involves understanding the various physiological problems of the recipient owing to long-term liver failure. Intra operatively, it requires real-time monitoring of pulse rate, blood pressure, heart function and maintaining adequate oxygen supply to vital organs. The vital parameters are subject to significant alterations during the entire period of surgery, which might result in an adverse impact on the recipient as well as on the newly transplanted organ. Hence, the anaesthesiologist has to be extremely vigilant during these kinds of prolonged and immensely challenging surgeries,” said Dr. Mishra.
To facilitate safe delivery of anaesthetic care, Jipmer director S.C. Parija specially procured advanced anaesthesia workstations and monitoring systems for the liver transplantation programme.
Free of Cost
Dr. Parija said Jipmer established liver transplant facility a few months back. Equipment worth over ₹2 crore was purchased by the institute for the liver transplant facility. “The first liver transplantation surgery was performed at the hospital expenditure of less than ₹1 lakh. The operation was done free of cost to the patient. Jipmer can perform liver transplants regularly at a cost of less than ₹5 lakh, which is one of the cheapest in the country. In private hospitals, patients have to spend ₹25-30 lakh,” he added.
Dr. Parija told that Jipmer established liver transplant facility to help the poor patient.
Dr. Biju Pottakkat said a liver transplant clinic will be started from this month on every Tuesday for those patients who require liver transplantation.
