A 16-year-old boy from the suburbs of Chennai recently underwent a live liver transplant for a rare genetic condition.
Dilli Ganesh was born with a rare condition, called cholesteryl ester storage disease. Doctors who treated him at Gleneagles Global Health City said it was a rare metabolic disease, and only 17 such cases had been reported so far.
The treatment was covered under the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme.
According to them, the teenager’s was the first such case to be reported in India. The condition was treated through a live liver donor transplant. The condition, caused by a mutation in the LIPA gene, leads to liver failure as the child grows. Ganesh was undergoing treatment at the Institute of Child Health for the last 14 years. But when his condition became critical, the hospital contacted experts in Gleaneagles Global Hospital. The boy was evaluated and when his mother came forward to donate a part of her liver, the doctors decided to go ahead with the transplant.
A team of 10 experts, led by director of Hepatology and Transplant Hepatology Joy Varghese, head of liver transplant surgery Rajanikanth Patcha, head of liver ICU Selvakumar Malleeswaran and head of Paediatrics Perumal Karnan took eight hours to perform the surgery.
Ganesh was diagnosed with jaundice at the age of two. His condition turned into persistent jaundice and there was swelling in the lower limbs and abdomen, a sign of liver cirrhosis.
However, within three days of surgery in July, his legs became normal and on the fifth day he was put on normal diet. He was discharged a fortnight after surgery.
The boy had approximately 4.5 litres of fluid in his abdomen. The fluid was found to have bacterial infection.
Dr. Patcha said it was a rare case and unlike in normal transplants where the left lobe is used from the donor, in Ganesh’s case his right lobe was used. The current COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to have a separate team of doctors and nurses in the liver transplant operation theatre and intensive care unit, said Dr. Malleeswaran.
The teen just completed Class 10 in a government school. His father Babu is a casual labourer.
Dr. Varghese said Ganesh would be reviewed weekly and would continue to be on medication life long. But he can lead a normal life like any other child.
In the last two years, the hospital had performed nearly 40 paediatric transplants, he added.