Chennai: In what can be considered as yet another milestone for the state’s healthcare sector, the first deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) was successfully performed at SRM Medical College and Hospital Research Centre, Katankulathur, Chennai by doctors from Gleneagles Global Health City.
In the deceased donor liver transplant, the liver of a brain dead person is harvested. After removal from the donor (a process called liver retrieval), the liver can be safely preserved outside the body in special preservation solutions for 12-14 hours. Several criteria such as blood group, the urgency of requirement and time on the waiting list play a crucial role in matching the recipient with the donor’s organs.
The 6-hour-long procedure was performed by Dr Vivek Vij, Director - Liver Transplant and HPB surgery, Gleneagles Global Health City and his team. The surgery was performed as part of the collaboration between SRM medical college hospital, Kattankulathur and Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by them.
The patient, a 46-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh was diagnosed with end-stage liver disease and was managed with medical therapy initially, but later this failed. Following the failure of medical therapy, doctors at SRM medical college and hospital advised the patient and family members for the urgent need for liver transplantation. He was listed for deceased donor liver transplantation as there was no matching liver donor from his family.
Speaking about the surgery, Dr Vivek Vij said, “Once the patient is diagnosed with chronic liver disease, initial treatment of optimal medical therapy can help the patient to stabilize but on decompensating, advanced medical therapy will not work and the only option is liver transplantation. Jaundice, fatigue, abdominal distension are the main symptoms suggestive of liver disease. Other symptoms are blood vomiting, panning black stools and altered sensorium,”.
Speaking about the partnership with SRM, Dr Joy Varghese, Director Hepatology & Transplant Hepatology said, “The association will see Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai bring its top-notch emergency services in liver disease and liver transplant expertise to SRM medical college hospital which will benefit local residents. We are extremely delighted, as we successfully performed the first DDLT at SRM hospital post our association.To strengthen the organ transplant program at SRM we are launching a new dedicated OT complex with ICUs in SRM medical college hospital exclusively for multi-organ transplants byAugust 2019. We will soon be setting up a heart failure clinic and doing our first heart transplant in the coming months,” said Ram Natesan, COO SRM Medical Health Sciences and Research.
Dr A. Sundaram, Dean for SRM medical college hospital, said “We are very happy that we have aligned with Gleneagles Global Health. We hope to do more service to the poor and ailing.”
The patient’s condition is said to be stable and he has also been discharged from the hospital.
