7 year old undergoes Liver Transplant at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals

The child had been suffering from sclerosing cholangitis, a rare liver disease in children

• Liver from a 40 year old cadaver donor was transplanted into the child

New Delhi: A 7-year-old child from Delhi, underwent a liver transplant at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi on 21^st April. He received a liver from a 40-year-old cadaver donor. According to Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “He had been suffering from sclerosing cholangitis, a rare disease which is seen in 0.2 per 100000 children. In sclerosing cholangitis, inflammation and fibrosis (scarring) develops in bile ducts within the liver and outside the liver. These scars make the ducts narrow, jaundice and itching develops and over a period to time cirrhosis and liver failure develops. The cause of this disease in unknown. Liver transplant is the only treatment option when end stage liver failure is established.”

Dr Neerav Goyal, Senior Consultant for Liver Transplant, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said, “The child’s condition had been deteriorating progressively. An immediate transplant was needed to save his life. A team of surgeons went to Jaipur, harvested the organ and brought it to Delhi, to be transplanted into the child. The organ retrieval took about four hours as the liver had to be split to reduce the size of the labor for it to fit in a pediatric patient. On the way back, they could make it from Jaipur to Delhi in 3 1/2 hours due to the green corridor created. We started the Liver Transplant at around 11:30 PM here and ended around 8 AM in the morning today.”