At a time when the country faces a high donor liver rejection rate due to poor quality of preservation and logistical challenges, doctors in a private hospital in Bengaluru have performed a liver transplant using ‘Normothermic Machine Perfusion’. This process can keep a liver alive outside the body for up to 24 hours by maintaining it at body temperature.
The organ recipient, 53-year-old Ashwath S.T., who was suffering from an end-stage liver disease. He became the first person in Asia to receive a liver transplant using this technology, claim doctors.
The surgery — considered the next important step forward in liver transplantation — was performed at Aster CMI Hospital using UK’s OrganOx Metra device technology, brought to India by the Hyderabad-based Duraent Lifesciences.
Sonal Asthana, Senior Hepatobiliary and Transplant Surgeon at the hospital, told The Hindu that the technology allows physicians to test how well a liver is functioning before transplant, boosting the chances of a successful transplant.
Dr. Asthana along with Rajiv Lochan, Senior Consultant and Hepato-pancreato-biliary and Transplant Surgeon, conducted the 18-hour surgery along with a team of nine doctors in April.
Livers are usually stored in ice and a preservation solution in a small box where they can be kept for 12 to 14 hours before transplant. Sometimes, those less suitable for transplant do not survive the cold and begin to deteriorate.
The new device has created a system that allows blood to circulate through the liver. When the organ is in the device that mimics the body, doctors can monitor the blood flow and letting out bile, and can better tell how it might work in a patient. The technology has only been available in Europe and the US so far.
