New Delhi:
Dishant, a seven-month-old baby boy from West Bengal, has become the youngest child to undergo a liver transplant at the Army Hospital Research and Referral in Delhi.
Absence of bile duct since birth allowed bile to accumulate in Dishant's liver ultimately weakening the organ.
"He is doing well now. When he was brought to us he was suffering from jaundice and since his bile duct was missing since birth, all bile had accumulated in the liver, endangering it," Brigadier Anupam Saha, head of the division of Liver Transplantation in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery at the hospital, said.
Dishant was suffering from Biliary Atresia - a liver disorder caused by a missing link between the intestine and the liver. His liver had failed completely as it was unable to
excrete the bitter yellow fluid secreted by hepatocytes from the liver.
"Removing the diseased liver and replacing it with a healthy one was the only solution. But he was not an ideal case for it. Liver transplants are performed after the age of one and above as risk reduces with age. Because of the age factor, he became the youngest to undergo this transplant in this hospital and second in India," he said.
On December 21, doctors took a portion of his mother's liver and successfully completed the transplant. "Surgery was difficult task as he was too small in size. He weighed only 6.5 kgs and he had to be transplanted 225 grams of liver.
"The piece of liver donated by his mother had to be further reduced for the transplant. We had to maintain his blood supply while conducting the transplant too and surgery had to be done under microscope as his blood vessels were too small," Brigadier Saha said.
This hospital tops the chart in cadaver liver transplant. With this transplant, the hospital has accomplished fifty successful transplants in the last three and a half years.