Chennai: Almost 80 per cent of the patients who undergo heart or lung transplants survive and the success rate starts from the first month.
Experts opine that some patients could survive for four to five years and few others could even live for three decades. But it is the rejection rate and the complications that require to be managed efficiently, city surgeons claim.
The initial results would be known from the first month. The rejection (of organs by the recipient) rate is 40 per cent generally.
“Some undergo rejection in the first year but severity may not be much. In the case of Kalyan, aged 42, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who underwent a lung transplant recently, his high level of antibodies (PRA) caused rejection of the transplanted lungs,”Dr Rahul Chandola, senior consultant heart and lung transplant surgeon, Global Health City, here, said.
With an end stage lung disease — an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues, Kalyan lost all hope of surviving until he met the doctors at the Global Hospital here.
“We had to modify his immune suppressive medication protocol pre-transplant as well as post transplant, in order to make sure the new lungs do not undergo rejection,” Dr Chandola said and added that antibodies determined how the patient will react after surgery. So anticipating rejection, the doctors had to import medicines from abroad to put him on the road of recovery.
In the case of Ramesh, aged 43, from Chennai, who suffered heart failure, his condition deteriorated leading to liver cirrhosis and any surgery on him would end in excessive bleeding and hence he was declined treatment by several hospitals. But his fortune changed when he obtained a heart from a 23-year-old road traffic accident victim from Chennai.
According to Dr Govini Balasubramani Senior Consultant Heart and Lung Transplant Surgeon, considering Kalyan Srinivas’ height and weight, his chest cavity is very small in size. “We have to choose right donor for good outcome. We got the matching donor lung from Vijayawada that has helped him to survive.”
“It was leaky valve and weak heart that had led to liver failure for Ramesh,” Dr Arun Dhanasekhar,cardiac physician, added.
“High risk heart and lung transplants are performed at Global which has expertise and technology to help patients live overcoming the challenges,” Bhaskar Reddy, vice president, corporate relations said.
