Lankan families swap livers for transplant
June 8, 2011 08:14 am
In a unique life saving deal, two Sri Lankan families swapped the livers of two of their members at a hospital in Chennai for transplantation, officials said yesterday. Chairman and managing director of Global Hospitals K Ravindranath said the two families exchanged livers under the paired donation programme.
It was the country’s first living donor simultaneous liver swap transplantation
surgery on adults.
The liver transplantation was necessary as the livers of the donors were
incompatible with other members of their families, he added.
The transplantation process involved four simultaneous surgeries on two donors
and two recipients affected with end stage liver disease.
The non-stop 16 hour operation was performed in four operation theatres on May
2 by surgeon Mohammed Rela, director of the liver transplantation programme at
the hospital, and his team.
Addressing reporters through video conferencing from Global Hospitals,
Hyderabad, Rela said the two families hailed from Kandy in Sri Lanka.
Mohamad Nazeem, 50, was diagnosed with cirrhosis of liver and was referred to
Global Hospitals.
His family members were willing to donate part of their livers but
unfortunately they were either medically not suitable or their blood group did
not match that of the patient.
Similarly Mohammed Nazir, 48, too was referred to Global Hospitals with chronic
liver disease.
Nazir’s son came forward to donate a part of his liver to his father, but their
blood groups did not match.
With both the families facing a similar problem, Rela suggested a swap liver
transplantation.
Interestingly, the organ suitability between these families’ donors and
recipients was found to be appropriate.
On May 2, Nazim’s wife Nazeen Fathima donated part of her liver to Nazir. In
turn, Nazim got liver from Nazir’s son Mohamed Zamrin.
The donors and recipients recovered quickly, Rela said.
The donors were discharged in about a week and the recipients in two to three
weeks.
“The burden of liver disease in the country and of patients needing liver
transplantation is very high. On the other hand, there is a huge shortage of
organs. In such situations, it becomes important to think of innovative ways to
optimise the scarce resource of living donors,” Rela said, Gulf Times reports.