Doctors in the city have recently conducted a laparoscopic left lateral hepatectomy on a 23-year-old Iraqi woman who donated a part of her liver to her ailing son.
A release issued by the Fortis Memorial Research Institute on Tuesday stated that two-and-a-half-year-old Ali Baha Hussain had been suffering from liver disease and as his condition started deteriorating, his mother decided to voluntarily donate a part of her liver.
In India, this was the first case where such minimally invasive technical procedures were employed to conduct a liver transplant.
The disease
The recipient had a condition known as ‘glycogen storage disease’, which is a precursor to advanced liver disease and liver cirrhosis.
Doctors here noted that the child was weak and his growth was severely stunted.
He had not grown in tandem with his age. When his condition deteriorated, his mother stepped forward to offer to donate a part of her liver.
After a thorough medical examination, a graft was retrieved from the left lateral segment of the donor mother. The entire procedure took 10 hours.
Though the minimally invasive surgical techniques resulted in several technical difficulties. it presented the patient with several advantages such as lesser pain, invisible scars and much lesser wound-related complications.
The recovery was smooth and uneventful with minimum hospital stay for the donor.
Director, Liver Transplant at Fortis Healthcare, Dr. Vivek Vij said, “The technological transition from the traditional liver transplantation to laparoscopy donor hepatectomy has multifold benefits."
He said that the liver donors will benefit the most from minimally invasive surgery as laparoscopic organ procurement ensures an excellent cosmetic and psycho-social outcome.
It is for the first time that such a surgery has been performed in India. Countries like Korea and France have already been doing such surgeries successfully.
