New Delhi: A seven-year-old boy from the city suffering from sclerosing cholangitis, a rare disease seen in two out of 10 lakh children, underwent a liver transplant at a hospital in Delhi.
The Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said on Thursday that the boy received a part of the liver from a 40-year-old cadaver (deceased) donor.
According to an official statement, Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals Group, said, “The boy had been suffering from sclerosing cholangitis, a rare disease which is seen in 0.2 per 1,00,000 children”.
“In sclerosing cholangitis, inflammation and fibrosis (scarring) develops in bile ducts within the liver and outside the liver. These scars make the ducts narrow, jaundice and itching develops and over a period to time cirrhosis and liver failure develops. The cause of this disease is unknown. Liver transplant is the only treatment option when end stage liver failure is established,” he said.
Neerav Goyal, senior consultant for liver transplant, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said in the statement, “The child’s condition had been deteriorating progressively. An immediate transplant was needed to save his life. A team of surgeons went to Jaipur, harvested the organ and brought it to Delhi to be transplanted into the child”.
Goyal said the organ retrieval took about four hours as the liver had to be split in order to fit in a paediatric patient.
“On the way back, they could make it from Jaipur to Delhi in three-and-a-half-hours due to the green corridor created. We started the transplant around 11.30 pm here and ended around 8 am Thursday,” he said.
PTI
