Advances in liver transplantation highlighted

"Liver transplantation is a rapidly expanding field, delivering improved survival and good quality of life." This was stated by Dr Parthi Srinivasan, consultant surgeon, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery at King's College Hospital, London, while addressing a gathering at Shifa International Hospital, under the topic "Advances in Liver Transplantation in 2009," attended largely by doctors, medical students and paramedical staff, on Monday.
At the event, guests were invited to share their skills and experiences in the field of liver transplant. Addressing the gathering, Dr Srinivasan said that liver disease within Asia is a significant health issue, presenting a public health challenge on societal and individual levels. Increasing number of patients are presenting with end-stage liver disease, requiring expert medical input including consideration of liver transplantation. He stressed that in an arena of finite health resource, the importance of early identification and treatment of liver disease, especially viral hepatitis is critical. Apart from high cost of surgery, finding the suitable donor is also a problem. In our experience, majority of donors were mothers, he informed.
Dr Srinivasan also explained the anatomy of liver and split liver grafting through three-dimensional diagrams and various photographs taken during liver transplant in operation theatre of the King's College. His presentation also included the statistical data related to the number of living donors' transplantation in Britain, patient survival and graft survival, which provided a clear picture of the results of transplantations that were being done in King's College. While revealing the facts about the severe shortage of donors, he emphasised the need to evaluate and re-evaluate the donor several times.
The later part of lecture was about the "Liver Transplant: 2009 Medical Perspectives" which was delivered by Dr Kosh Agarwal, consultant hepatologist and transplant physician. He talked about the indications of transplantation in adults, model for end-stage liver diseases, pre and post transplant complications, infections and various therapeutic approaches.
Prior to the event, an elaborate discussion, with the relevant team of doctors at Shifa, headed by Dr Najamul Hassan Shah, Director, Liver Transplantation Program was held. Later, the guests visited different facilities at Shifa as kidney transplant and bone marrow transplant is already in practice at the hospital.-PR