NEW DELHI: A 52-year-old patient suffering from acute liver disease got a new lease of life after undergoing plasma exchange at a city hospital. The patient was in a dire need of the transplant. The procedure could be a ray of hope for many who either can’t afford the cost of transplant which goes up to Rs 30 lakh, or those who are at a stage of the disease were waiting for a donor could be fatal.
The patient was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and had symptoms of jaundice for two weeks followed by altered consciousness. He further developed ascites (accumulation of fluid in abdomen) and decreased urine output (acute kidney injury), doctors said.
He was later detected to be hepatitis B positive and and a diagnosis of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) secondary to hepatitis B virus reactivation was made, they added. Based on the condition of the patient, the doctors considered dialysis and offered him an option of liver transplant as the parameters indicated very less rate of survival. However, with no donor in the patient’s family, the doctors went ahead with an unusual procedure—plasma exchange (PLEX). “We did a total of five sessions of PLEX. After second session, his jaundice started improving and renal functions also started improving,” said Dr Piyush Ranjan, Senior consultant, Department of Gastroenterology.
Dr Ranjan added, “He was going through other medical therapies as well such as the anti-viral therapy. The patient was discharged after 20 days of hospitalisation in a stable condition and after one month of follow-up, his ascites (water in stomach) completely resolved and jaundice had normalized.”