THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health Minister Veena George has said that the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College is ready to undertake liver transplantation at affordable cost. If a suitable liver donor is available, the MCH can take up transplantation procedure on the recipient patient, the minister said. Liver transplantation is a complicated medical procedure done only in five or six centres, even though there are at least 150 multi-speciality hospitals in state.
The first successful liver transplantation in government health sector was held in Kottayam Medical College in February this year. Though doctors at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College performed liver transplantation in May 2016, the patient died after three weeks due to complications.
MCH authorities have formulated an action plan to undertake liver transplantation. The facilities include a recipient ICU, donor ICU, and an operation theatre with special focus on infection control. The MCH has trained its staff, including doctors, nurses and attenders to deal with transplantation protocols.It has also obtained a licence for conducting transplantation.
The minister announced the transplant readiness of MCH after the transplant team of the hospital made a presentation of the preparations conducted in the last two months, on Monday. The minister offered all support for successful transplantations.The Thiruvananthapuram MCH has made remarkable achievements in kidney transplantation. It conducted the 100th such transplantation in January this year.
“Kidney transplantation is relatively less complicated when compared to liver transplantation. While we can provide artificial support systems such as dialysis to kidney patients to avert a life-threatening situation, a failure in liver transplantation will lead to the death of the patient,” said Dr Noble Gracious, executive director of Kerala State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTO). “The government is moving ahead with the policy of providing primary to quaternary care,” he added. The demand for liver transplantation is high. There are 720 patients registered in Kerala Network for Organ Sharing. According to Dr Noble, the actual number of patients in need of a liver transplant is 10 times higher.
“Unaffordable cost and lack of donors is affecting liver transplantation. It will cost Rs 25-35 lakh for a transplantation in private hospitals. The government has formed SOTO to make transplantation accessible and affordable to all,” he said. After Thiruvananthapuram, the health department has plans to start liver transplantation in Kozhikode MCH.