Romanian surgeons removed a 23.2 kg giant liver from a patient diagnosed with a polycystic disease replacing it on Wednesday at the Fundeni Hospital with a normal 1.5 kg liver.
The transplant saved the life of the 38-year old male who received a cadaveric donor match of a 56-year old male in clinical death.
This was biggest diseased liver ever removed and replaced by a donor organ. A special technique had to be used because the healthy liver could not be placed in the same anatomic location as the original liver practically filled the whole thoracic cavity, dangerously pressing on all other organs there.
Hepatic transplantation is a major surgical procedure with a high risk level. Those who underwent a liver transplant have a 60% chance of surviving 15 years.
Liver transplantation is one of the most expensive medical procedures with costs that go over USD 300,000 in the first year in most developed clinics of the developed countries but are as low as USD 50,000 in India, where the great number of such transplantations led to similar results to the ones of high standard hospitals in the world.
Usually a liver transplantation team of 8 persons (3 surgeons and 1 anesthesiologist with up to 4 supporting nurses) is enough but the difficult intervention in Romania to eliminate the 23.2 kg and 0.6 m long liver needed a team of 18. No details were given about the costs of the transplantation, but in a previous case (the one of the Iris band singer Cristian Minculescu) the Minister of Health of Romania stated that procedures in Romania are more expensive than the ones in Germany. Costs of the procedure in Germany seem to have been euro 47.000. These costs were covered by the Ministry of Health and all the other costs related with the transplantation were covered by the family.
ReplyDelete