Liver transplant from sister saves man’s life

 

The 40-year-old man had a case of liver failure and could even lose his life if surgery was not conducted within three months

New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) Gifting a new lease of life to her brother on Rakshabandhan, a 43-year-old woman donated a part of her liver for a complex transplant surgery, a statement from a private hospital said on Thursday.

The 40-year-old man had a case of liver failure and could even lose his life if surgery was not conducted within three months, the statement said.

For me, my brother is everything. I am happy that I gifted him something precious this Rakshabandhan. My family and I had been really worried about his situation for months. I’m thankful to the doctors for saving my brother’s life, Pooja Jain, the donor, said.

According to the Akash Healthcare hospital in Dwarka, which conducted the surgery, the patient at the time of his admission into the hospital had been suffering from a range of conditions, such as jaundice, prolonged renal issues, ascites (water in the belly) and severe coagulopathy as a result of the failure of the liver.

Apart from being obese, the patient’s blood was not clotting. According to the severity levels marking the extent of the liver disease, the patient’s Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score was above 30 meaning if the liver was not transplanted within three months, the patient would not survive, the statement said.

The doctors who conducted his surgery said that the biggest challenge was his excess body weight, which made it nearly impossible for them to carry out the transplant.

In order to navigate through the weight problem, the doctors decided to take the right lobe of the sister’s liver which was much smaller than what would be required for the brother.

Thereafter, the lobe was optimised for size by using the middle hepatic vein of the patient in such a way that the flow coming to the patient’s liver was completely drained.

The splenic artery was then tied off, which helped decrease the portal flow and the small liver fitted perfectly in the patient’s body, the doctors said.

The patient and the donor had an excellent recovery post-transplantation and are enjoying their normal lives. At the time of surgery, the patient’s bilirubin level (jaundice) was 15 and now (on day 4), it is around 4,” Senior Consultant and Director of Liver Transplant, Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary at Aakash Healthcare, Ajitabh Srivastava said.

“It also spreads the message that any healthy person can donate their liver without suffering any harm, he said.

Srivastava said that liver donation is a safe surgery for the donor and donating a part of the liver does not affect the donor in any manner in the immediate or long term.