Medical professionals in the city were given an update on liver and pancreas transplantation at a lecture programme organised by the local chapters of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Association of Physicians of India (API) in collaboration with Apollo Hospitals on Sunday.
Noted surgeons from the Centre for Liver Disease and Transplantation, Apollo Group of Hospitals, Dr. Anand Ramamurthy and Professor Dr. Anil Vaidya informed the audience of the latest progress in surgical procedures and medical criteria, with the help of slide presentations.
Speaking about liver transplants, Dr. Ramamurthy, Senior Consultant, Co-ordinator, (Surgical Gastroenterology), said the regenerative property of the organ has been known for a long time. Transplants could be done for chronic liver failure (defined as progressive destruction of the liver parenchyma leading to fibrosis and cirrhosis), and acute liver failure (marked by the onset of encephalopathy altered mental status, or coagulopathy altered bleeding tendencies), he said, provided the patient fulfilled the requisite criteria.
While a cirrhotic liver is commonly linked to alcohol abuse, Dr. Ramamurthy said that the emerging disease of Non-Alcoholic Steato-Hepatitis (NASH) was predicted to become the second-most common reason for liver transplants. NASH refers to liver inflammation and damage caused by the build-up of fat in the organ.
“With our nation projected to be the diabetes capital of the world, the number of NASH patients is bound to be higher,” Dr. Ramamurthy said. Pancreas transplantation is still in infancy in India, said Dr. Vaidya in his opening comments, with only 10 such operations having been done till date nationwide (four of them by Apollo Hospitals). Technical problems associated with pancreatic transplantation had stopped it from becoming mainstream for a long time, he added.
“Despite this, pancreas transplant is the only cure for diabetes,” said Dr. Vaidya, who is also a leading multi-visceral transplant surgeon associated with Oxford University and has served as a consultant there for 11 years.
Both the speakers emphasised that the success of a transplant procedure depended not just on the fitness of the patient, but also on the work of a large and multi-disciplinary medical team. “Pyscho-social support for transplant patients is important because they undergo a life-changing event, and both patient and family members need to be aware of what is in store for them,” said Dr. Ramamurthy.
