KOKILABEN DHIRUBHAI AMBANI HOSPITAL CELEBRATES 100 LIVERS TRANSPLANTED
HEALTH / ACHIEVEMENTS
CELEBRATING 100 LIVERS
TRANSPLANTED BY
KOKILABEN DHIRUBHAI AMBANI HOSPITAL
by Shrutee K / DNS
Mumbai, 4 July 2015: To mark 100 livers transplanted in just over two
years of the establishment of its Centre for Liver Transplant, Kokilaben Dhirubhai
Ambani Hospital held an event where donors and patients were felicitated by the
hospital in the presence of leaders of the community, opinion makers and members
of the media.
Across India, organs to save lives are in
short supply and the paucity of brain-dead donors exacerbates the problem. Every year, around
250,000 patients die of liver failure in India owing to cirrhosis, and over
25,000 patients need a liver transplant every year. However, only 1,100 undergo
liver transplantation. Of this, only 5 per cent were performed in Western
India, that too primarily by visiting surgeons, because of the lack of a comprehensive
liver transplant setup. Although several centres offered liver transplant, the
numbers were few and outcomes poor owing to the absence of city-based consultants,and
the lack of requisite infrastructure and experience in living donor liver transplantation.
Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital celebrates
100 Livers Transplanted
Success rates benchmarked to the world’s best, including
high-risk cases and rare procedures
Community leaders, opinion makers and media present
Tina Ambani, Chairperson, Kokilaben Hospital,
addresses the audience
As part of its constant endeavour to bridge
the gaps in the Indian healthcare system, Kokilaben Dhirubhai
Ambani Hospital established the Centre for Liver Transplant as a pioneering
Centre of Excellence in March 2013 to transplant livers both from living donors and
cadavers with dedicated Liver Transplant Operation Theatres (OT) and a
dedicated Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The Centre is supported by a dedicated, full-time
team that comprised six transplant surgeons, six intensivists, four hepatologists,
two infection-control specialists, four anaesthetists, one interventional
radiologist and 40 specialist transplant nurses. A first for the city of
Mumbai, and Western India as whole, this experienced team, backed by state-of-the-art
infrastructure,ensures round-the-clock monitoring and sustained care and
follow-up well beyond the surgery itself.
In addition, Kokilaben Hospital has consistently championed the cause of organ donation and its efforts have begun to bear fruit, with 15 of its liver transplants being cadaveric donor transplants. “People should know that every adult can be an organ donor, during life and death, irrespective of age,” affirms Tina Ambani, Chairperson, Kokilaben Hospital. “The government, healthcare institutions and the NGO sector will have to work together to promote organ donation, spread awareness and institute sustainable mechanisms. Still, every constituent in the process can act as a catalyst to change. A hospital like us, with firm roots in the community and a well-established reputation, can certainly make a valuable contribution to the process. I believe we were all born with the ability to change someone's life. Let’s not waste it.”
Since inception, the Centre has transplanted
100 livers. While 15 have been cadaveric donor liver transplants, the others
speak to the success of the Centre’s Living Donor Liver Transplant Programme.
This programme has proved to be a change agent, right from the first liver
transplant performed at the hospital on the 27-year-old mother of a
three-month-old baby who had developed acute liver failure owing to medicines
given to treat tuberculosis. The donor: her brother. He was the first of our
living donors who have displayed their courage and generosity to help their
loved ones—wife, husband, brother, sister, parent, grandparent and even distant
relatives. While most donors have been in-house, some donors from Kokilaben
Hospital have even donated livers for patients with acute liver failure in
other hospitals in Mumbai.
“Liver transplants have been performed
successfully in some of the sickest patients, including patients on intensive
life support on ventilators. And several paediatric transplants have been
performed successfully, including some turned down by other centres as too
risky,” said Dr Vinay Kumaran,
Consultant & Head, Hepatobilliary Surgery & Liver Transplant. “Despite
taking on many such prohibitively risky cases, the Centre’s outcomes have been
impressive, with a successful rate benchmarked to the international standards
established by the world’s best institutions.Some rare and innovative
procedures performed at the Centre include cavo-portal transposition in a
patient with extensive thrombosis of the portal and mesenteric veins, and dual
lobe transplants in a patient for whom a liver lobe from one donor would have
been too small.”
Further, Kokilaben Hospital’s liver
transplant expertise has allowed the establishment of a centre for complex
hepatobilliary and pancreatic surgery. Expertise with vascular resection and
reconstruction has allowed surgery for liver and pancreatic cancers that would
be deemed inoperable at most centres. With the kidney transplant team having
successfully performed blood group incompatible liver transplants, Kokilaben
Hospital plans to begin ABO incompatible liver transplants for situations in
which no blood group compatible donor is available. On the anvil, also, are pancreas,
small bowel and multivisceral transplants.
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