Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has successfully completed 100 liver transplant surgeries in just over 2 years as against 90 liver transplants performed by all other Mumbai hospitals put together in last 18 years. 85 to 90 per cent of which have been live donor liver transplant with success rates benchmarked to the world’s best, including high-risk cases and rare procedures.
Dr. Vinay Kumaran, consultant and head, hepatobilliary surgery and liver transplant and his team completed 100 livers transplanted in just over two years after the establishment of centre for liver transplant. Recently the hospital held an event where donors and patients were felicitated by the hospital in the presence of leaders of the community and opinion makers.
As part of its constant endeavour to bridge the gaps in the Indian healthcare system, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital established the centre for liver transplant as a pioneering centre of excellence in March 2013 to transplant livers both from living donors and cadavers with dedicated liver transplant operation theatres (OT) and a dedicated intensive care unit (ICU).
The centre is supported by a dedicated, full-time team that comprised six transplant surgeons, six intensivists, four hepatologists, two infection-control specialists, four anaesthetists, one interventional radiologist and 40 specialist transplant nurses.
Dr Vinay Kumaran says, “Liver transplants have been performed successfully in some of the sickest patients, including patients on intensive life support on ventilators. And several paediatric transplants have been performed successfully, including some turned down by other centres as too risky.”
He futher adds, “Despite taking on many such prohibitively risky cases, the centre’s outcomes have been impressive, with a successful rate benchmarked to the international standards established by the world’s best institutions. Some rare and innovative procedures performed at the Centre include cavo-portal transposition in a patient with extensive thrombosis of the portal and mesenteric veins, and dual lobe transplants in a patient for whom a liver lobe from one donor would have been too small.”
“People should know that every adult can be an organ donor, during life and death, irrespective of age. The government, healthcare institutions and the NGO sector will have to work together to promote organ donation, spread awareness and institute sustainable mechanisms. Still, every constituent in the process can act as a catalyst to change. A hospital like us, with firm roots in the community and a well-established reputation, can certainly make a valuable contribution to the process. I believe we were all born with the ability to change someone's life. Let’s not waste it,” said Tina Ambani, chairperson, Kokilaben Hospital.