Visakhapatnam :

The first liver transplant without any blood or blood product transfusion in Andhra Pradesh was held at a corporate hospital in the Healthcity, Arilova recently.

The surgery was performed on a 54-year-old male patient on July 30.The patient has since recovered and is all set to be discharged.

The male patient hailing from Vijayawada was suffering from NASH (Non-Alcoholic steatohepatitis) related cirrhosis and decompensated liver failure. He had a very poor quality of life due to accumulation of excessive water in his body, episodes of bleeding in his gut and hepatic encephalopathy (liver failure related mental changes), said Dr Sandeep Chatrath, Central Regional CEO, Apollo Hospitals.

“In addition, his cirrhotic liver also had a cancerous tumour, which necessitated an immediate operation. Unfortunately his family had no matching live donor and therefore had no option but to wait for a cadaveric organ from a brain dead person. A matching liver from a brain dead patient was available and was allocated to him under Jeevandan scheme of AP,” informed Dr Manish C Verma, chief transplant surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad and Vizag.

This operation, which lasted for about eight hours is also a landmark operation as it is the first liver transplant in the state to be done without any blood or blood product transfusion. Dr Varma said, “Liver transplant has always been an operation which requires high volumes of blood product transfusions and this operation without any transfusion is a clinical benchmark which is rarely achieved.”

The team of specialists who performed the liver transplant included, Dr Manish C Varma, Dr Anand Khakhar, Dr Manjunath B, Dr Kirubakaran, Dr N Muralidhar, Dr Disha, Dr N. Srinivas, Dr Satish, Dr Atchyut, Dr Bhushan and Dr Sasidhar Reddy.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / August 11th, 2016