Lucknow: Lucknow Medanta has recently performed its 50th liver transplant.This is the largest number of liver transplants done by a single centre in central/eastern UP. Dr AS Soin, Chairman and Chief Liver Transplant Surgeon said that this is a big achievement for the region as well as a big relief for local patients as they don’t have to travel out of state for getting a liver transplant as state of the art facilities for liver transplant are available in Medanta, Lucknow.
These transplants were performed in patients as young as 3 years age and as old as 61 years age, which again is the youngest patient and the oldest patient to undergo a liver transplant in central/eastern UP. Most of the patients (17) were from Lucknow, followed by Prayagraj (8), rest from Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Kanpur, Unnao, Mathura etc, covering whole of central and eastern UP. A 31 year old male patient from Yemen also underwent an emergency lifesaving transplant at Medanta Lucknow, making it the first international patient to have a successful transplant in the region. Dr Prashant Bhangui, Associate director,liver transplant surgery at Medanta Lucknow, informed that the brother of Yemeni patient flew in from Saudi Arabia to donate liver for his brother. Both went back home within one month in a healthy condition. This achievement opens door to medical tourism in the state of UP.
Alcohol abuse was the main condition leading to liver damage in 34% patients. This was followed by MASH (Fatty liver and its complications ) in 22 % patients. Dr Vivek Gupta, Senior Consultant and Liver Transplant Surgeon at Medanta, Lucknow said thatFatty liver and diabetes is projected to be the largest cause of damaged liver by 2050. Lifestyle modification and diabetic management can avoid liver damage in such patients. Transplants were also done for liver cancer and hepatitis (B & C). Liver transplant can be the only possible cure for advanced liver cancer and lead to complete cure for cancer. Medanta, Lucknow has all advanced technologies (Trans arterial radio embolization, Trans arterial chemo embolization, PET CT, External beam radiotherapy etc.) to take care of even advanced liver cancer including those which seem to have involved vessels (Portal vein).
Another large group was acute liver failure (14%) which mostly happens in children and young adults. Dr Abhai Verma, Director, Gastroenterology at Medanta, Lucknow said that These patients need an emergency transplant within a few hours or else they may not survive. These patients are very sick and challenging, usually on ventilator and are comatose, and all formalities relating to transplant need to be cleared in a couple of hours. Medanta hospital Lucknow has performed the largest number of ALF cases in the region, all with successful results.
We would also like to salute the donors who came forward to save their loving family members. In most cases (42%) this happened to be the spouse (wife/husband) of the patient. This was followed by Son and Daughters to Mother and Father (22%) followed by Brother/Sisters (14%) and mother to their Child (10%). Other were Cousins, Nephews or other relatives.
