Chennai: Gleneagles Global Health City (GGHC), successfully performed 38 living donor liver transplantations across Tamilnadu during the pandemic, within the duration- 23 March to 25 December 2020, whilst adhering to the strict guidelines of ICMR and the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).
According to a press release, given that even the slightest delay in a transplantation procedure could cause serious harm to the life of the patient, the team at GGHC evaluated the urgency of the transplantation using MELD score (Model for End Stage Liver Disease). In normal circumstances, patients with a MELD score > 15 are considered for liver transplant. However, during this pandemic, only very sick patients with MELD score greater than 25 points were considered for liver transplantation.
Dr Joy Varghese, director – Hepatology and Transplant Hepatology, said, “We have successfully performed living donor liver transplants for 38 patients who fulfilled one of the above three said criteria. Out of the 38 patients, 24 were adults and 14 patients were children. Donors and recipients were discharged from the hospital hale and healthy in the shortest possible period.”
“Living donor liver transplantations are complex surgeries in the best of times. During this pandemic, our aim was to perform liver transplants for critically ill patients in a safe, timely and technically perfect manner thus ensuring their smooth and rapid recovery,” quoted Dr. Mettu Srinivas Reddy, director- Liver Transplant & HPB Surgery.
Dr Alok Khullar, CEO, said “Performing living donor liver transplantations during the pandemic Covid-19 was highly challenging as the lives of the patient, donor and the entire team of liver specialists were at risk. We took it as a challenge to implement the highest standards of infection control to enable transplantation without any risk of Covid-19 transmission.”