Doctors save child in need of liver

Doctors at Children’s Hospital No. 2 successfully performed a liver transplant yesterday on a one-year old patient who’s organ had failed earlier.

Her mother, the donor, is also out of danger and is awake and aware after the operation.

However, doctors are still cautious about their recovery because they said it was a complex, eight-hour surgery and the little girl could still reject the liver in the next few days.

Professor Tran Dong A, head of the operation team, said at a press briefing also yesterday that Nguyen Anh Kim Tram had been diagnosed with congenial biliary atresia, a disease of the bile ducts, when she was six months old.

However, at that time it was too late to perform a temporary operation that would have replaced her damaged liver ducts with a length of her intestine to act as drain ducts for bile. That procedure would have allowed her to grow until she was strong enough for a new liver.

Doctors decided to go ahead with the transplant after her 29-year-old mother agreed to be the donor.

The girl suffered from multiple organ failure, malnourishment, lung inflammation and a respiratory disorder and faced the constant risk of burst vessels or hemophilia, which could prove fatal.

The bilirubin in her blood was also 675mg per litre, considered too high compared to the permitted level of less than 5mg per litre.

After consulting with Belgian doctors who have worked with Children’s Hospital No.2’s liver transplant programme for the past two years, the hospital decided to conduct the operation.

In the past two years, Professor Dong A’s team at the Children’s Hospital No.2 have successfully performed liver transplants on three children aged less than 2 years old before Tram’s surgery. They are all doing well.

Professor Dong A said that according to the agreement of the joint liver transplant between his hospital and his Belgian counterparts, Vietnamese doctors will begin to operate independently following the completion of six successful transplants with their Belgium partners at their side.

The success of these transplants will be a strong foundation for the hospital to set up a transplant centre for HCM City as per request from the municipal People’s Committee and the Department of Health.

Source:vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn