PGI doctors transplant liver after 10 years
TNN | Jan 26, 2019, 08:03 IST
Picture used for representational purpose onlyLUCKNOW: The liver transplant facility at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) was revived after almost a decade on Friday. The transplant was conducted on a nine-yearold boy from Bahraich, whose mother donated a part of the liver. The 22-hour-long surgery including preparatory stage started around 7am on Thursday and concluded at 5am on Friday.
Both the donor and the recipient are in the post-operative intensive care unit. They would be under observation for six days. The boy was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and transplant was his only life-saving option. “ It takes about eight days to see if the donated part of liver has been accepted by the recipient or not,” explained chief medical superintendent Prof Amit Aggarwal. He added that the team, led by head of liver transplant unit Prof Rajan Saxena, comprised 14 doctors from surgical gastroenterology, microbiology and anaesthesia departments. Calling the procedure a “big achievement”, SGPGI director Prof Rakesh Kapoor said, “On our Foundation Day in 2018, we had promised to start the liver transplant facility in the New Year and we have been able to keep our word.”
With this, the institute has been able to overcome its past failure. The institutes’s previous attempts in liver transplant, that started around 2001, had failed to take off.
The team had undertaken around a dozen procedures but majority of the patients didn’t survive for long. “With our facility now, we can easily undertake 50-60 transplant procedures in a year. But for that, we will have to establish our skills and build a name,” said Prof Kapoor. Advocating for SGPGI’s transplant unit, Prof Aggarwal said: “Unlike AIIMS Delhi, SGPGI has a separate building for liver transplant unit. This will help us achieve highest standards of infection control which remains a challenge for many centres.” Prof Kapoor added, “Against estimated expenditure of around Rs 50 lakh in a private facility, we would offer liver transplant facility at around Rs 10 lakh.”
According to estimates, more than 20,000 people, including around 5,000 from UP, need liver transplant in India annually. Yet around 1,000 liver transplants are performed in the country in a year.
“The number of people in need of liver transplant is grossly underestimated as the data is based on patients suffering from chronic liver disease who go to hospital,” said a surgeon at SGPGI. Organ donation activists said around 2 lakh people die of liver disease every year in India.
Both the donor and the recipient are in the post-operative intensive care unit. They would be under observation for six days. The boy was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and transplant was his only life-saving option. “ It takes about eight days to see if the donated part of liver has been accepted by the recipient or not,” explained chief medical superintendent Prof Amit Aggarwal. He added that the team, led by head of liver transplant unit Prof Rajan Saxena, comprised 14 doctors from surgical gastroenterology, microbiology and anaesthesia departments. Calling the procedure a “big achievement”, SGPGI director Prof Rakesh Kapoor said, “On our Foundation Day in 2018, we had promised to start the liver transplant facility in the New Year and we have been able to keep our word.”
With this, the institute has been able to overcome its past failure. The institutes’s previous attempts in liver transplant, that started around 2001, had failed to take off.
The team had undertaken around a dozen procedures but majority of the patients didn’t survive for long. “With our facility now, we can easily undertake 50-60 transplant procedures in a year. But for that, we will have to establish our skills and build a name,” said Prof Kapoor. Advocating for SGPGI’s transplant unit, Prof Aggarwal said: “Unlike AIIMS Delhi, SGPGI has a separate building for liver transplant unit. This will help us achieve highest standards of infection control which remains a challenge for many centres.” Prof Kapoor added, “Against estimated expenditure of around Rs 50 lakh in a private facility, we would offer liver transplant facility at around Rs 10 lakh.”
According to estimates, more than 20,000 people, including around 5,000 from UP, need liver transplant in India annually. Yet around 1,000 liver transplants are performed in the country in a year.
“The number of people in need of liver transplant is grossly underestimated as the data is based on patients suffering from chronic liver disease who go to hospital,” said a surgeon at SGPGI. Organ donation activists said around 2 lakh people die of liver disease every year in India.
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