BGS Gleneagles Hospital, a part of Parkway Pantai, successfully performed a liver transplant saving the life of a 51-year-old patient from Bangalore suffering from acute liver failure caused by anti-tuberculosis medication. His condition was fast deteriorating when he arrived at the hospital.
Acute liver failure is loss of liver function that occurs rapidly — in days or weeks — in a person who has no pre-existing liver disease. It is much less common compared to other liver diseases requiring liver transplantation, such as decompensated cirrhosis of the liver, which develops more slowly. Acute liver failure causes serious complications, including excessive bleeding and increasing pressure on the brain. Other organs like the heart, lungs and kidneys may also require support in such patients. It is a medical emergency that requires intensive care, ideally in transplant centres. Depending on the cause, acute liver failure can sometimes be reversed with medical treatment. In many situations, though, a liver transplant may be the only cure.
A liver transplant was the only option for Manjunath. It took place in late October 2016, and lasted nearly 12 hours including the time to taken to harvest the organ from the donor.
A multi-disciplinary team including Dr. Sanjay Govil, Dr. Suresh Raghavaiah Dr. Raghavendra CV (Transplant Surgery team), Dr. Vinit Shah (Hepatologist), a team of intensivists and anesthetists worked on this surgery.
Commenting on the case, Dr. Sanjay Govil, Sr. Consultant, HPB & Liver Transplant Surgery said, “For patients with acute liver failure, time is of the essence. Transplantation must be performed within days of hospital admission and requires an experienced and dedicated team of doctors including intensivists, hepatologists, transplant surgeons and anesthetists to maintain the patient while awaiting an organ for transplantation.”
Dr. Suresh Raghavaiah, Consultant, HPB & Multi Organ Transplant Surgery, added that Liver support measures such as plasma exchange to purify blood and remove toxins are particularly useful and in specific instances might permit the liver to recover spontaneously without transplantation. An elective liver transplant patient usually requires about 3 weeks of hospitalization and about 3 months of recovery outside of the hospital.
In Manjunath''s case, given that he was very sick, he stayed in the hospital for 5 weeks and continues to be on follow up with the doctors.
Commenting on the importance of raising awareness for organ donation, Dr. Suresh Raghavaiah, Consultant, HPB & Multi Organ Transplant Surgery, said, “Mr. Manjunath is alive today only because of the gift of life he received through the generosity of his organ donor. There are more than 400 patients waiting for an organ right now in Karnataka. We need more people to enlist to donate their organs after death to save more lives. Each donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation.”
“There are several factors that have led to the establishment of a robust liver transplant program in BGS Gleneagles Hospital. The foremost was the formation of a team comprising of highly skilled liver transplant surgeons, hepatologists, specialized anesthetists and intensive care experts. Dedicated and specially trained nurses form an important part of the team. Equally important are the provision of the best medical equipment available to treat critically ill patients. Notably, BGS Gleneagles Hospital is the only hospital in Karnataka with a special dedicated liver ICU where all forms of advanced liver diseases can be managed in a state of the art manner.” said Mr. Thomas Mathew, Chief Operating Officer, BGS Gleneagles Hospital Bangalore.
BGS Gleneagles Hospital is currently host to the busiest transplant program in Karnataka with over 140 successful Liver transplants. They currently average 3-4 liver transplants a month. They have also successfully managed the most multi-organ transplants in Karnataka including 7 Liver-Kidney and 3 Kidney-Pancreas transplants. BGS Gleneagles Hospital has an experienced team performing a high number of living donor Liver Transplants. This year alone, they have performed more than 40 transplants, including 11 living donor liver transplants, with a success rate of over 90%.
About BGS Gleneagles Hospital
BGS Gleneagles Hospital at Bangalore is a unit of Gleneagles Hospitals India. Gleneagles Hospitals is part of Parkway Pantai, a fully owned subsidiary of IHH Healthcare. In India Gleneagles Hospitals operates a chain of multi-super specialty hospitals offering tertiary and quaternary healthcare services with over 2,000 beds and state-of the-art, world-class hospitals in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. A pioneer in kidney, liver, heart and lung transplants, Gleneagles Hospitals provides comprehensive multi-organ transplant services in the country.
About Parkway Pantai
Parkway Pantai is one of Asia’s largest integrated private healthcare groups operating in Singapore, Malaysia, India, China, Brunei and United Arab Emirates. For over 40 years, its Mount Elizabeth, Gleneagles, Parkway, Parkway Health and Pantai brands have established themselves as the region’s best known brands in private healthcare, synonymous with best-in-class patient experience and outcomes. Parkway Pantai as part of IHH Healthcare, the world’s second largest healthcare group by market capitalisation operates more than 10,000 licensed beds across 52 hospitals in 10 countries worldwide, offering the full spectrum of integrated healthcare services from clinics to hospitals to quaternary care and a wide range of ancillary services including medical education.
