Global Health City, Chennai part of the Global Hospitals Group performed an auxiliary liver transplant on a paediatric patient from Oman. The two-year-old Yasmin is one of three children in the world under three years of age to have undergone a complex surgery for acute liver failure.

According to the Global Health City, the patient has now made a  remarkable recovery and can now look forward to a normal life, without immunosuppressive medication. The hospital claims that the surgery is South Asia’s first pediatric auxiliary liver transplant.

The patient suffered from hepatitis A and developed hepatic coma which was rapidly looming into a liver failure. Her condition deteriorated in the form of an increasing jaundice, coagulopathy, seizures, difficulty in ventilation, decreased urine output and coma. The doctors at Oman referred her to Dr Naresh Shanmugam, paediatric liver specialist at Global Health City.

Baby Yasmin was airlifted from Oman and admitted at Global Health City in a critical condition. Her condition was stabilized by paediatric intensive care team. After due consideration by the liver transplant team, the diagnosis indicated that auxiliary liver transplant to be the best option for cure.

The 10-hour surgery was performed on April 21, 2012 by Prof. Mohamed Rela and his team which included Dr Rajasekhar Perumalla, Dr Venugopal, Dr Gomathy Narasimhan, Dr Vivekanandan and Dr Srinivas Reddy.

A portion of Yasmin’s liver was removed and replaced with a small portion of her uncle’s liver. Post –operative complications were managed by the  paediatric liver intensive care team headed by Dr Shanmugam. In four days the patient’s liver function reverted to normal. Two months after surgery, she is kept alive by the donor liver but her own liver has also started functioning and probably in next six months time when her own liver is fully functional all her medications will be stopped and she can lead a normal life like any other child, stated Prof. Rela, who pioneered the Auxiliary liver transplant technique at Kings College Hospital, London,   but conducted the same for the first time on a child here in India.

“Transplant programme at Global Health City has evolved from a sustained commitment to world class surgical expertise. Auxiliary liver transplant is the latest available in the international healthcare market and gives children a second chance to live a normal life. The procedure is a technically demanding surgical technique,” he added.

Liver is an organ that can regenerate. In acute liver failure, if the organ could temporarily support its function until native liver regenerates, transplantation could be avoided. Unlike kidney dialysis there is no effective liver dialysis machine that could support during liver failure. Instead, a small portion of donor liver could be transplanted along side of native liver which would work as a temporary dialysis machine, according to the Hospital.

Global Health City is a 500 bedded super specialty tertiary care facility, with a capacity to expand to 1000 beds. The Global Hospitals Group started with its first Hospital in Hyderabad a decade ago. Now it has nine hospitals with over 2000 beds, at Bangalore and Chennai. The Mumbai facility is proposed to be operational by the end of the current financial year.