KARACHI, March 12: Liver transplantation has emerged as an established treatment in most parts of the world since 1983, as not only new drugs were introduced for immunosuppression, but also due to availability of better preservation fluids for the liver.
Nigel Heaton, Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon, King's College Hospital, London, said on Friday while delivering Dr S.H. Naqvi Memorial Lecture at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT).
The speaker mentioned that the fluids which could keep the liver viable for 20 years, helped transport cadaver livers to bigger distances. This, he added, was further supplemented with improved surgical techniques with split liver transplantation, as now one liver could be used for multiple recipients.
Anaesthesia skills and drugs also improved and infection control advanced, the surgeon said, reminding that all these refinements over the years had given better results and now the risks for the donors were reduced to 9 per cent and the complications in the recipients were 20 per cent.
Mr Heaton described the cadaver liver as an organ for at least two recipients, adding that the living donor had limitations as either the left lobe could be used or the right lobe removed by skilled techniques, to avoid complications.
He said the future was bright as surgical techniques were improving and immunosuppression-free therapies were foreseen. Moreover, he added that eventually Hepatocytes (Liver cells) would be replacing the whole liver. These cells from a donor would be injected into the recipient's portal vein and would grow into a normal liver, he said.
The surgeon emphasized the role of family physicians as significant in motivating patients and boosting their confidence for undergoing transplant surgery and for living donations.
Mr Heaton, who holds 15-year experience in liver transplantation, said he performed 200 liver transplants every year in his unit, most of which were cadaver organs, while the remaining were from living donors.
The youngest patient he had treated was five-day old and the oldest was of 74 years, he said, adding he was confident that liver transplantation would be another hall mark of SIUT, where skill and facilities were in abundance.
Earlier, Dr Aziz Khan Tank, Secretary-General, College of Family Medicine, delivered a citation on Dr S.H. Naqvi, an eminent senior family physician and paid rich tributes to him.
Dr Naqvi was said to be the founder and the first president of the College of Family Medicine in Pakistan. He was the first representative from Pakistan to the World Organization of National Academia (WONCA), now known as World Organization of Family Doctors.
Dr Naqvi had contributed tremendously towards continuing medical education among family physicians, Dr Tank said, adding that his efforts led to the creation of postgraduate diploma in Family Medicine, which later was elevated to Membership of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.-APP
