Doctors perform Living Donor Liver Transplant & CABG, in one sitting spanning over a gruelling 14 hours
- The treatment involved the expertise of multiple specialities including Liver transplant, Oncology & Cardiac teams
Hyderabad, 10th January 2020: Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, has accomplished a rare and complex feat of performing combined procedures of Living Donor Liver Transplantation and Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) operation, on a patient in a single sitting. The surgery spanning over fourteen hours involved the expertise of multi-speciality teams including Cardiac, Oncology and Liver transplant.
The 67-year-old male patient from Hyderabad, Mr Siva Prasad Rao, was suffering from Liver Cirrhosis and Liver cancer. During evaluation for a liver transplant, he was found to have significant coronary artery disease with critical blocks in the blood vessels to the heart. The heart disease was found to be significant enough to preclude performing a liver transplant. Coronary stenting was not an option as, after stenting, the liver transplant could not be carried out for 8-12 weeks, and waiting was not an option as the patient’s liver cancer could spread during the waiting time. The multidisciplinary team at Apollo Hospitals decided to perform both the operation, Liver transplant and Coronary Artery Bypass at the same time.
The patient’s 33-year-old daughter, Mrs Rohini, came forward to donate a part of her liver. The operations were carried out on December 6th, 2019. CABG was done first followed by Living donor liver transplant. The Living-donor liver transplant is a surgical procedure in which a portion of the liver from a healthy living person, in this case, the patient’s daughter was removed and transplanted in the patient. The entire operation took 14 hours to complete. The donor was discharged on 6th Day after the operation and the patient was discharged on 12th day after the operation. Both the patient and the donor are doing fine.
Meticulous planning, carefully timing the donor and recipient surgery and availing all concerned speciality services when needed, as the recipient had to undergo cardiac bypass surgery first and then followed by a liver transplant, ensured incident-free treatment, says
Dr Manish C. Varma.
The treatment rendered for this patient is rarely performed as it is an extremely high-risk case. Performing such cases successfully requires a multidisciplinary approach involving critical medical and surgical specialities, very competent nursing, support staff and excellent hospital infrastructure. The team of Specialists involved in this dual surgeries were Dr Manish C. Varma, Senior Consultant and HOD, Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery; Dr Naveen Polavarapu, Consultant, Gastroenterologist and Transplant Hepatologist; Dr Manoj Agarwala, Senior Consultant Cardiologist and Dr Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Cardiothoracic Surgeon.
Not just in India, even abroad in the best of the medical centres, a patient in an advanced age coupled with multiple complications like liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and critical blocks in the heart, would have been avoided for further care. But the doctors at Apollo took on the challenge, as they were confident of their expertise and the back-up infrastructure and support at their disposal. This will be recorded in the annals of medical history and will serve as an inspiration for the Indian medical fraternity for generations, says Dr Hari Prasad.
About Apollo Hospitals
It was in 1983, that Dr Prathap Reddy made a pioneering endeavour by launching India’s first corporate hospital – Apollo Hospital in Chennai. Now, as Asia largest and most trusted healthcare group, its presence includes 8,488 beds across 51 Hospitals, 1,586 Pharmacies, 92 Primary Care and Diagnostic Clinics, 100 Telemedicine units across 10 countries. Health Insurance services, Global Projects Consultancy, 15 colleges of Nursing and Hospital Management and a Research Foundation with a focus on global Clinical Trials, epidemiological studies, stem cell & genetic research and the first Proton Therapy Centre across Asia, Africa and Australia.
In a rare honour, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of Apollo’s contribution, the first for a healthcare organization. Apollo Hospitals Chairman, Dr Prathap C Reddy, was conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2010. For more than 28 years, the Apollo Hospitals Group has continuously excelled and maintained leadership in medical innovation, world-class clinical services and cutting-edge technology. Our hospitals are consistently ranked amongst the best hospitals globally for advanced medical services and research.