Rare liver transplant saves three-year-old 

CHENNAI: Doctors at Gleneagles Global Health City Hospital have successfully performed a liver transplant surgery on a three-year-old boy from Andhra Pradesh by retaining a portion of his liver and transplanting a portion of his mother’s liver to him.

According to a press release, the boy had acute liver failure, due to which he suffered from jaundice, bleeding and coma. The usual practice is to completely replace the recipient’s liver, but in this case, the doctors performed an auxiliary liver transplant, retaining half the child’s liver and transplanting a portion of his mother’s.

Though technique is not new, performing such a surgery requires technical expertise.  The method is particularly useful in children as their liver regenerative capacity is high, and life-long anti-rejection medication can be avoided, the release quoted Dr Joy Varghese, director, Department of Hepatology and Transplant Hepatology, as saying.