KARACHI: The Dow University Hospital successfully completed its 50th liver transplantation on Friday.

“These procedures performed with the Sindh government’s financial support included an auto-liver transplant in which the liver is taken out of the body, the tumour is surgically removed, damaged veins are reconstructed and the liver is re-implanted,” a spokesperson of the university explained.

So far, only four auto-liver transplants had been performed in the world, he added.

Prof Muhammad Saeed Quraishy, the vice chancellor at the Dow University of Health Sciences, and hospital superintendent Prof Zahid Azam congratulated the team of liver transplant unit, expressing the hope that it would achieve more milestones soon.

The team was sent for training to Islamabad, Turkey and the US. The experts included Prof Faisal Dar, Dr Jahanzeb Hyder and Dr Muhammad Iqbal.

According to experts, the country required hundreds of liver transplants every year due to the growing number of chronic patients.

Liver is the only organ in the human body which can regenerate itself so people can donate parts of their livers to others for saving their lives.

In a liver transplant, an unhealthy part of a patient’s liver is surgically removed and a healthy portion from a donor is implanted. Following the surgery, both the donor and the recipient can live healthy lives.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2022