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Considering the shortage of cadaver donors and the high number of people needing liver transplants, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi plans to start liver transplants from living donors.
The organization has formed an eight-member committee, headed by Dr Pranjal Modi, Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University of Transplantation Sciences, to look into the option. Presently, AIIMS Delhi provides liver transplant services through donation from brain dead patients after taking the necessary consent from their family members.
A living donor liver transplant is a surgery where part of the liver from a healthy living person is removed and transplanted into another person whose liver is no longer working properly. Significantly, the remaining liver of the donor regrows and returns to its normal size, volume and capacity within a few months after the operation.
This move will give great relief to patients suffering from liver damage as the waiting list for those who need transplants is quite long in the institution. The number of cadaver donor liver transplants is also rare due to the low rate of organ donation from brain dead individuals.
“Due to this, the need was long felt to start a facility for liver transplantation from living donors at AIIMS. Kidney and liver are two such organs that even a living person can donate to relatives to save life,” said an official with the AIIMS administration.
Currently, liver transplants from living donors are higher in number in private hospitals where the cost of such a transplant is between Rs 22 to 25 lakh. The move by AIIMS will help economically weak patients who come to the institute for liver transplants. So far, the majority of economically weak patients who approach the organization have had to wait for years for treatment despite the availability of a donor.
The committee set up by the AIIMS administration also includes the director of the institute Dr M Srinivas, heads of the departments of anaesthesia, gastroenterology, surgery and cardiac surgery. Dr Pranjal Modi, who will head the committee, is also a member of the Institute Body and chairman of the Standing Academic Committee at AIIMS.
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