Chennai: Doctors in the city have successfully treated a young toddler for acute liver failure by performing an auxiliary liver transplant.
The three-year-old boy from Andhra Pradesh was discharged from Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai, after one week of undergoing successful liver transplantation for acute liver failure – a life-threatening disease where a previously healthy liver suddenly stops functioning leading to jaundice, bleeding and coma.
However, the doctors at GGHC performed this procedure where they carried out an auxiliary liver transplant- a technique where half of the child’s own liver was retained while transplanting a portion of his mother’s liver. The usual practice is to completely replace the recipient’s liver.
Dr Srinivas Reddy, director, department of liver transplant and HPB surgery who lead the surgical team explained that the decision to perform auxiliary transplant was made after careful analysis of multiple factors suggested potential for liver recovery.