Adding another centre of excellence to its already existing specialties, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai has launched a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art comprehensive Centre for Liver Transplant, providing Western India with its only such centre.
The centre is a complete unit consisting of expert doctors specially trained to provide comprehensive care to all the patients across the entire spectrum of liver disorders involving dedicated and full time Specialist Transplant Surgeons, Physicians (Hepatologists), Anaesthetists, Intensivists, Radiologists, Haematologists, Blood Bank Specialists, Transplant Coordinators and Specially Trained Nurses supported by dedicated Operation Theatres, a dedicated Liver Intensive Care Unit (Liver ICU), and other high-tech infrastructure and equipment necessary for such complex procedures.
The hospital is the first in Western India to offer both Living Donor and Deceased (Cadaver) Donor Liver Transplants for adults as well as children with end-stage liver disease. The unit also offers Emergency Liver Transplants for patients with Acute Fulminant Liver Failure.
Dr. Vinay Kumaran, Head, HPB and Liver Transplant Surgery, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has shared some of the details which are not commonly known. He says, “It has been estimated that about 2, 00,000 Indians die of liver failure every year. In an ideal world, most of these would be candidates for a life-saving liver transplant. Around 25,000 liver transplants need to be done every year in India. However, about 1,100 transplants were performed in India that too mostly in Delhi and centres in South India.” Explaining the reason for this, Dr. Kumaran said that it was mainly due to the present visiting model that offers no scope for establishing a comprehensive centre.
Further, describing the liver transplant scenario in Western India, Dr. Kumaran added, “The need for liver transplant in Western India, including Mumbai, is estimated to be about 5000 - a demand almost impossible to meet through cadaver organ donation – a fact that emphasises on the importance of the Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT) team.”
It is interesting to note that a normal liver is a very unique organ, which has a huge reserve capacity, which means that even 25% of the liver can carry out the functions normally performed by the whole liver. It also has a capacity to regenerate - if 75% of the liver was to be removed, the remaining 25% would grow rapidly and soon become full sized. These unique properties are utilised in LDLT. In essence, the diseased liver of the patient is removed and a part of the donor
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