Liver transplant for 8-month-old patient

NDO - Vinmec Healthcare System has just successfully performed a special liver transplant for a child patient NLT, 8 months old, weighing only 6.5 kg, with congenital biliary atresia.

This is the first time a private hospital has successfully performed a liver transplant on one of the youngest and lightest pediatric patients ever in Vietnam. The organ source was from a brain-dead donor.

The liver transplant was especially for an 8-month-old patient, NLT, who suffered from end-stage cirrhosis due to congenital biliary atresia. Despite undergoing Kasai surgery at 1.5 months of age, the patient's liver function did not improve. The patient had to be hospitalized every 1-2 weeks in an increasingly serious condition, with abdominal distension, splenomegaly, ascites, and difficulty breathing due to the liver compressing the diaphragm. Liver transplantation is the only treatment option.

When a suitable liver source from a brain-dead donor was available at Bach Mai Hospital, the Vinmec Professional Council chaired by People's Physician, Associate Professor, Doctor Pham Duc Huan urgently activated the interdisciplinary coordination process to perform the transplant.

Doctors performed a transplant on the child.

This was a very difficult surgery, not only because of the patient's extremely low weight but also because of the patient's long medical history. The Vinmec medical team had planned in detail, preparing the most optimal and safest options for anesthesia, resuscitation and especially liver transplant techniques.

Associate Professor, Dr. Le Van Thanh, senior advisor of the Vinmec Healthcare System Liver Transplant Program, a leading expert in the field of liver transplants in Vietnam, shared that the surgery, which lasted more than 10 hours, was successful, with each step performed precisely and rhythmically down to the minute.

According to Dr. Dao Duc Dung, Hepatobiliary Surgeon, Department of Gastroenterology-Hepatobiliary-Urology, Vinmec Times City International General Hospital - the main surgeon of the surgery, with the patient's medical history, the surgery posed very difficult problems regarding blood clotting disorders, anatomy, and vascular reconstruction.

Immediately after the anesthesia ended, the patient cried healthily – a strong sign of recovery after a life-threatening journey. Currently, the baby’s health is progressing positively, eating and sleeping well, and liver function has gradually improved.

The patient recovered quickly after the transplant.

Anxiously waiting for the moment her child woke up after the transplant, the patient's mother emotionally said that when she heard her child's strong cry after 8 months of fighting the disease, she knew her child had been reborn.

The extremely difficult liver transplant not only marked a breakthrough in organ transplant techniques in Vietnam but also left an impression on the smooth and scientific coordination between units inside and outside Vinmec to make the most of the "golden time" when the liver was removed from the donor's body.

The donor was a brain-dead case of multiple organ donation (heart, lungs, liver, corneas), so the entire process of organ retrieval, transportation, and transplantation required close, continuous coordination and strict adherence to technical and time aspects.

People's Physician, Associate Professor, Doctor Pham Duc Huan shares about liver transplant.

Liver transplantation is a difficult technique but has been implemented and fully mastered by Vinmec since 2017. The hospital has successfully performed many challenging transplants, such as: Liver transplantation for children under 10kg, transplantation for patients with fulminant liver failure on the basis of chronic liver disease, patients with incompatible blood groups, patients undergoing a third liver transplant, and especially cases with anatomical changes in the blood vessels and bile ducts of the liver, or anatomical changes in the liver donor.

Vinmec is also the only private medical unit in Vietnam that can perform liver transplants from living donors and ranks second in the country in the number of this type of transplant.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/ghep-gan-cho-benh-nhi-8-thang-tuoi-post877942.html