What is a Liver Transplant?
A healthy liver is essential to survival. A liver transplant may be necessary to save your life if your liver is failing or if you have primary liver cancer. The liver may fail for a variety of reasons, including acute (short-term) liver disorders and toxic poisoning. A healthy liver will be exchanged for an unhealthy or failing one during liver transplant surgery, which could be a life-saving treatment.
The list of people awaiting a replacement liver is long. Individuals who are given liver transplants are in serious condition and have no other options for care. Liver cancer, acute liver failure, or end-stage liver disease are possible diagnoses. Surgically replacing a failing liver with a healthy liver from a different person’s body is known as a liver transplant.
A donor who has just been declared dead may donate their entire liver, or a living donor may donate a portion of their liver. Both your body and the living donor’s liver can grow a divided liver to its full size. Offering a liver transplant in Delhi, this transformative procedure is performed at IHPBLT Liver Care at BLK-MAX Hospital, recognized as the best liver transplant surgeon Dr. Abhideep Chaudhary devotes himself to treating liver diseases.
Types of Transplant
Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and diseased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) are the two types of liver transplants. Compared to DDLT, LDLT is more common in India. LDLT was previously only used in paediatric cases, but due to increasing demand for liver transplants, doctors are now using LDLT in adult patients as well. With DDLT, the recipient’s liver is removed by a surgeon and is replaced with a healthy liver from a deceased donor. The bile duct is then rebuilt by the surgical team after the veins and arteries are connected.
In LDLT, a surgeon can use several portions of the liver, including the:
- Left lateral sector
- Left lobe
- Right lobe
A surgeon may occasionally combine the left lobes of two donors into one recipient. We refer to this as a twin graft.
Procedure for Liver Transplant in Delhi
The liver transplant surgery procedure involves three main steps: preparation, surgery, and recovery. This procedure is performed at IHPBLT Liver Care at BLK-MAX Hospital.
Preparation
- Depending on whether the donor has died or is alive, there are differences in the preparation phase.
- When using a live donor, medical professionals will plan the procedure four to six weeks before the time.
- In the case of DDLT, as soon as the transplant team finds a matching liver for a dead donor, the transplant coordinator will contact the recipient. The receiver has to get to the hospital as soon as possible.
- The recipient’s transplant coordinator will inform them of what they need to do to prepare.
Surgery
- When a live donor gives the liver, both the donor and the recipient have surgery at the same time, with the operations planned by the medical team.
- Before the surgery, the transplant recipient will receive a general anaesthetic. This means they will be asleep during surgery.
- A surgeon makes cuts across the patient’s abdomen and towards the chest to replace the liver. The diseased liver is then removed and replaced, and it is connected to the recipient’s bile ducts—the tubes that carry the liver from the small intestine to the blood arteries. After that, the surgeon stitches or clips the wound together.
Recovery
- The patient is taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) by the medical staff after surgery. An ICU Day is also spent by living donors.
- Experienced doctors and nurses keep a careful eye on both donors and recipients.
- Medical professionals assess the recipient’s heart, lungs, and kidneys through blood testing and other diagnostic procedures. To prevent their immune system from damaging the replacement liver, the recipient also starts taking immunosuppressive drugs. This is a medication they will have to take for the rest of their lives.
- The day after surgery, the patient will be advised by the medical team to get out of bed, sit in a chair, and walk short distances when they feel well enough.
- Both The recipient and donor will get counselling from the transplant professionals on self-care after they leave the hospital.
Conclusion
During liver transplant surgery, a donor’s healthy liver is used to replace the damaged organ of the patient. Donors may be living people or the dead. Part of the liver is donated by living donors; the whole liver is provided by donors who died. Hepatitis, alcohol-related liver disease, cirrhosis, and other illnesses can all be treated by the best liver transplant Surgeon in Delhi.
More than 90% of patients survive the procedure, and this number is rising. If a person decides to undergo a liver transplant, they will work together with Dr. Abhideep Chaudhary and their team during their operation and recovery as well as determine their eligibility for one.
IHPBLT is acknowledged as one of the most comprehensive, multidisciplinary disease-management centres that offer specialized treatment of liver and pancreas-related diseases, making it one of the best liver transplant hospital in Delhi, India.
