Liver transplantation is usually done when other medical treatment cannot keep a damaged liver functioning. Liver transplantation is surgery to remove a diseased liver and replace it with a healthy liver from an organ donor.
About 85 to 95percent of people survive liver transplantation. Survival rates have improved over the past several years because of drugs like cyclosporine and tacrolimus that suppress the immune system and keep it from attacking and damaging the new liver. The most common reason for liver transplantation in adults is cirrhosis, a disease in which healthy liver cells get replaced with scar tissue. The most common reason for liver transplantation in children is biliary atresia, a disease in which the ducts that carry bile out of the liver have not developed adequately.
Indications
1) What are the common indications for liver transplantation?
The common indications for liver transplantation are:
- Hepatitis B cirrhosis
- Hepatitis C Cirrhosis
- Alcoholic liver disease/cirrhosis
- Liver tumour(HCC) fitting criteria for transplantation[Hepatic malignancy]
- Primary biliary cirrhosis
- Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis
- Autoimmune Hepatitis
- Acute liver failure/Fulminant hepatic failure
- Metabolic diseases
- Hospital Stay
2) What is the usual length of stay in the hospital?
The donor stays in the ICU for 1-3 days and is usually discharged from hospital by day 10.
The recipient based on the severity of his disease and general health stays in the ICU for 5-7 days and is discharged from the hospital by 3-4 weeks.
Results
3) What are the results like?
About 85 to 95percent of people survive liver transplantation. Survival rates have improved over the past several years because of drugs like cyclosporine and tacrolimus that suppress the immune system and keep it from attacking and damaging the new liver.
4) What about the authors experience
Dr Ravishankar K Diddapur was trained in UK at Birmingham, Edinburgh & Newcastle. Birmingham is one of the largest centres in Europe performing over 160 liver transplants a year.
He has been involved in the management of over 200 liver transplants. He has performed the highest number of liver transplants at National University Hospital in Singapore during the last three years. He has been doing all the in house living donor hepatectomies at NUH over the last two & half years as consultant Liver transplant surgeon and Head of Hepatobiliary surgery.
Dr Ravishankar K Diddapur to his credit has done the first and all three liver transplants in patients with portal vein thrombosis at NUH Singapore. He has also performed the first paediatric liver transplant in patient with combined portal vein thrombosis and hepatopulmonary syndrome at NUH.
He has had no mortality or major morbidity with all his living donor hepatectomies. He has maintained nil 30 day mortality for all his liver resections at NUH with a bile leak rate of less than 3% at NUH Singapore over the last 4 years.
Media Release
1) Click here to view the media release at “The Sunday Times” on 2 September 2007.
