AIIMS Performs its first Adult Living donor Liver Transplant

Doctors at AIIMS performed a live-donor liver transplant in an adult for the first time when a 51-year-old man from Assam received the organ from his wife. Until now, the institute has primarily performed liver transplants using donations from the families of brain-dead patients. According to officials, a live-donor liver transplant was performed on an 8-year-old girl from western Odisha in the paediatric category in 2016. Madhavi Ghosh, 42, donated 66% of her liver to her husband Ranjan Ghosh, who had been suffering from liver cirrhosis for a long time and transplantation was the only way to save him.

Both the donor and the recipient are stable following the transplant this week and will be monitored closely for the next month, according to doctors. Rima Ghosh, the couple's daughter, told sources that the transplant would have been impossible for them to obtain at a private hospital, where it would have cost Rs 30 lakh. It costs Rs 15 lakh at AIIMS, but the family hasn't paid anything yet because the doctors have assisted them in obtaining government funds, according to her. "I am just waiting to return to Assam happily with my parents," said Ghosh, who is pursuing BSc. "I don't know what would have happened if the procedure was not done on time as my father's condition was deteriorating," she said, adding that she is grateful to Dr Pranjal Modi and Dr Nihar Ranjan Dash, who performed the 16-hour surgery. There is no liver transplantation facility in their home town Bijni. Recently, AIIMS has formed an eight-member committee, headed by Dr Modi, vice-chancellor of Gujarat University of Transplantation Sciences, to look into the option of live liver transplants. "Kidney and liver are two such organs that even a living person can donate to relatives to save a life," said a doctor. In a living-donor liver transplant, a portion of the organ from a healthy person is removed and transplanted into a patient.

The donor's remaining liver regrows and returns to its normal size, volume and capacity within a couple of months of the surgery. According to doctors, in adults, the most frequent causes of liver ailment is chronic infection with hepatitis B and C virus and excessive consumption of alcohol. Liver failure in such cases requires organ transplant. Other conditions that necessitate a liver transplant include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver cancer and primary biliary cirrhosis. Rarer causes include drug overdose with medications that damage liver or acute liver failure due to viral hepatitis A or B.