9-Month-Old Iraqi Boy Undergoes Successful Liver Transplant In Delhi

A nine-month-old boy from Iraq got a new lease of life after undergoing liver transplant at a hospital in Delhi.

Such a transplant is considered risky among those aged less than one year. However, doctors of Manipal Hospitals in New Delhi took up the challenge and performed the nine-hour-long surgery on Ali Hamad on January 3.

Hamad's mother donated a part of her liver to save her son's life who was born after three kids. The three kids died perhaps of a similar disease that could not be diagnosed and treated timely, the hospital said.

Hamad was discharged from the hospital on January 26, it said.

According to Dr Sailendra Lalwani, the head of the liver transplant and hepato-pancreatic-biliary surgery department, no supply of blood to the liver is a big challenge to any liver transplant team as vascular complications are high in paediatric transplant patients.

The reconstruction of the portal vein with graft is always a challenge as it increases the risk of thrombotic complications. To overcome this challenge, we planned to use an iliac vein graft procured during cadaveric liver transplant, said Dr Lalwani who performed the surgery with a multi-disciplinary team.

"On January 3, the baby underwent the transplant. There was no flow in the portal vein. We placed the interposition vein graft to give inflow to the liver. After the surgery the baby was shifted to ICU on a ventilator," he said.

Hamad was off the ventilator the next morning and gradually in the next few days, his oral feeding started. Finally, after 20 days of the surgery, he was discharged from the hospital, the doctor said.

Timely clinical intervention is very important in such cases and Hamad came to right on time. This case was no less than an actual miracle, said Dr Sufla Saxena, a consultant paediatric gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the hospital, who was part of the multi-disciplinary team.