NoBlood

Nika · #1 (**permalink**) 04-28-2005, 10:49 PM

Source:
HindustanTimes

Link:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/1...0600010001.htm

Bloodless liver transplant for Pak child
HT Correspondent
New Delhi, April 28, 2005

A first-of-its-kind liver transplant without blood transfusion was carried out on a four-year-old boy from Pakistan at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

Safi Khan from Lahore had been born with a congenital liver disease. As he grew, so did the disease, and last year, his liver turned cirrhotic, meaning it developed scars. Some urgent emailing later his working class father, Rais Khan, and mother, Anila, brought Safi to Delhi early this month for the operation.

"Safi, though four, weighed only 16 kg. So, we had to ensure that he lost very little blood during the operation. His blood group matched with his father's younger brother, who agreed to donate a part of his liver,'' liver transplant surgeon, AS Soin said.

The operation on Safi's uncle to extract a piece of his liver lasted for about six hours. The operation on Safi was more complicated and lasted for more than eight hours. A team of doctors conducted the operation on April 9. Special surgical equipment was used to carry out the surgery. "Usually, 25 to 50 units of various blood products are needed for a liver transplant. For this operation, less than 25 units were kept ready for use,'' Soin added.

"The advantages of a 'bloodless' operation are many. There is less risk of infection; there are no transfusion-related reactions. There was no need for the child to be kept on the ventilator either. Moreover, post transplant recovery is also faster,'' he said.

The normal cost of a liver transplant is around Rs 15 lakh. In the 'bloodless' procedure, it's usually less by about Rs 2 lakh. "For Safi's operation, the cost came to about Rs 12 lakh,'' paediatric hepatologist, Neelam Mohan, said.

Safi, doctors said, has recovered fast and was ready for discharge. "So far, there have been 12 liver transplants at Ganga Ram. Out of which 11 have survived and are leading normal lives. We are very confident about Safi,'' SK Sama, chairman of the hospital, said.