New surgical technique allows mother to donate Liver to child- Bringing a smile to his face

Vijayawada 30th August 2022: Another success story from the partnership between South Asian Liver Institute & Manipal Hospital Vijayawada; this family had no option other than a liver transplant, for their son who had a congenital liver disease. However, the only suitable donor in the family was his mother who had unsuitable liver anatomy. most people would have just given up but the liver team at Manipal Hospitals, led by Prof Dr. Tom Cherian, felt a surgical modification might solve this problem.

Sudheer is an 8-year-old boy who had Wilson's related End Stage Liver Disease, with a high sodium MELD (model for end-stage liver disease) score and was severely unwell with high Bilirubin and severe growth retardation. He in order to save his life, needed an urgent Living Donor Liver Transplant. He had no ideal Living Liver Donor in his family suitable to donate the Liver.

Prof. Dr. Tom Cherian, Senior Liver Transplant Surgeon along with his team took up this challenge and accepted his mother who was the only possible option available to donate the Liver but had a very peculiar, complex and a very rare Liver anatomy – A single non bifurcating portal vein, which usually makes her unsuitable for a liver donation. However, Prof. Dr. Tom Cherian with his vast experience and expertise took up this challenge and performed this complex Pediatric Liver transplant surgery using a new technique and approach.

In this particular case, the position of the donor portal vein was in a very non anatomical place and at a very unusual angle for which the surgical technique had to be modified in such a way that it was made suitable for this anatomy. The Donor Portal vein after Left Lobe Liver resection was first reconstructed outside the patient using specifically created grafts. The Hepatic venous anastomosis was done in the same way, but the biliary duct anastomosis was done first followed by the Hepatic artery, which in normal cases is done the other way around.

Both the South Asian & Manipal Hospital Team including the Specialist nurses, senior consultants, Gastroenterologists, Critical care specialists & especially the pediatric team then managed to aid the boy through the recovery to finally discharge him last week. Dr. Sudhakar Kantipudi – Hospital Director at Manipal Hospitals commented, “I am very pleased that our doctors & Nurses at Manipal Hospitals were able to pull off this feat, which is only a result of their vast experience in Liver transplantation & liver disease. Prof. Dr. Tom Cherian, using this new technique and method was able to save the life of the boy and now the mother and the boy both are doing well happily, with an excellent quality of life".