CHENNAI: Doctors at Rela Hospital successfully performed a dual live donor liver and kidney transplant on a three-year-old girl from Oman recently after her mother and uncle donated the organs.The child was suffering from primary hyperoxaluria, a unique condition where the problem is with the liver, but presenting symptoms are kidney failure (kidney damage from oxalate stone), the release said.
Doctors at Rela Hospital spearheaded by Professor Mohamed Rela performed a dual live donor transplant with the help of a segment of liver donated by the girl’s uncle and left kidney from her mother. The surgery took over 10 hours, the release added. The child was diagnosed with renal failure at 10 months of age and had been on dialysis since then. She was also diagnosed with primary hyperoxaluria, an enzyme defect in the liver leading to oxalate deposits all over the body, including heart, kidneys, joints and eyes.
Liver and kidney transplants were the only options for the child’s survival. At the time of arrival to the hospital, the child weighed only 8.2 kg. Doctors decided to wait till the child’s weight reached 10 kg. But as the child’s health was deteriorating, doctors decided on an immediate transplant. The dual organ transplant was performed successfully on January 28. Post the transplant, the child is doing well and her weight increased to 9 kg, the release added.
It was challenging to find a donor for kidney transplant for the child’s size and age and there were too many complications as the adult kidney is quite large and a child’s abdomen is small. The blood vessels of the child are too tiny to manage blood flow pressure from the adult kidney as half litre of blood flows in an adult kidney in an hour, the release said.