Part of Liver Removed Through a Laparoscopic Surgery, Claims to be India's First

Doctors at a Delhi hospital removed a part of the liver of a 23-year-old Iraqi woman, in what is being claimed as a first in India, through laparoscopic surgery. The young lady donated the pert to her ailing son after a 10-hour procedure. The procedure hepatectomy, a surgical resection (removal of all or part of the liver) is usually done in traditional open surgery. In India, this is possibly the first case in which such minimally invasive technical procedure has been conducted for liver transplant, the hospital said.

The woman’s two-and-a-half-year-old son was suffering from a liver condition known as glycogen storage disease, a precursor to advanced liver disease and liver cirrhosis. And as his condition deteriorated, the young mother voluntarily donated a part of her liver. After a thorough examination a graft was retrieved from the left lateral segment of the donor. Vivek Vij, director of liver transplant at Fortis Healthcare said, “While using minimally invasive surgical techniques to conduct the surgery posed several difficulties, it also presented the patient with several advantages such as lesser pain, invisible scars. The recovery was smooth and uneventful with minimum hospital stay of the donor.”

People with liver problems often experience few or no symptoms. While there have been major advances in treating liver diseases, a complete cure is still elusive. The only way to manage a failed liver is to get a transplant. Liver transplant is a treatment option for end-stage liver diseases and acute liver failure, although the availability of donor organs is a major limitation. According to the World Health Organisation, liver diseases are the 10^th most-common cause of death in India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 16, 2018 09:56 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).