Eleventh cadaveric liver transplant in 15 months performed at RGGGH

RGGGH performs 11 cadaveric liver transplants in 15 months, aiming to expand program to benefit more patients.

In a span of 15 months, the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) has performed 11 cadaveric liver transplants. With the deceased donor liver transplantation programme steadily progressing in the State’s largest government hospital, the Health Department is keen on enabling more government hospitals to perform cadaveric liver transplants.

Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi said they were encouraging hospitals such as the Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, to perform liver transplants. The Tirunelveli Medical College also has an initial tie-up with a private hospital for the procedure.

“We want more and more government medical college hospitals to perform liver transplants so that the poor benefit. We are asking government medical colleges, particularly the departments of surgical gastroenterology and deans, to have tie-ups with well-established hospitals so that cross-learning happens. This way, the experience can be broad-based to other parts of the State and common people will stand to benefit,” he said.

It may be recalled that the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital was the first among government hospitals to start performing liver transplants in Tamil Nadu. Cadaveric liver transplants took off at the RGGGH in February 2023. In a nearly 14-hour procedure that started at 6.30 p.m. on Saturday, doctors performed its 11th liver transplantation in 15 months on a 40-year-old woman who had Wilson’s disease.

E. Theranirajan, Dean of RGGGH, said eight cadaveric liver transplants were performed last year and three so far this year. “This time, our team retrieved the liver independently from the donor. As per the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the State government and Rela Hospital (2022 to 2025), our team had undergone training in liver transplantation. We had put in place appropriate infrastructure to take forward liver transplantation in the institution. Our aim is to operate independently, and in the near future, start pancreatic and small intestine transplantations,” he said. RGGGH has recorded 18 donors so far this year, while 26 kidney transplants were also done.

K. Prem Kumar, Director In-charge of Institute of Hepatobiliary Sciences, RGGGH, said that training was a continuous process. “Before we started performing transplants, our doctors, staff nurses, and paramedical staff, such as those from microbiology and biochemistry departments, underwent extensive training,” he said.

Liver transplants require teamwork and coordination, and this has been put in place at the institute, C. Sugumar, Director, Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant, RGGGH, added. “We have the required infrastructure. We have WhatsApp groups with other departments pertaining to liver transplant as well as with the Rela Hospital team. Once an alert on brain death identification comes in, we take up all required measures, including asking the priority list of patients to come in for re-evaluations,” he said.