Mumbai: Two men struggling with end-stage liver disease got a new lease on life when their wives agreed to donate parts of their liver in a swap transplant. Ramdas Chavan, 61, from Amravati suffered from diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, interstitial lung disease, ascites buildup and hepatitis C that led to end-stage liver disease (liver failure).
Hepatitis B also led to liver failure for Dinesh Sarode, 41, from Akola. Both Chavan and Sarode had been waiting for a transplant for almost a year.
Dr Gaurav Chaubal, the director of Liver, Pancreas, Intestine Transplant Programme at Global Hospitals in Parel, said their wives were eager to donate part of their livers but the match with their partners was incompatible. However, they matched with other recipients and hence a swap organ transplant was planned.
The two transplants were carried out concurrently for 10 hours. The recipients were discharged in 14 days while the donors in a week. The doctors said there is always a scarcity of eligible donors in liver transplantation, causing mortality with advanced liver disease. Swap transplantation is an excellent way to add to the donor pool and benefit more patients.
Senior consultant haematologist Dr Uday Sanglodkar from Global Hospitals said that one patient was A blood group and the second was B blood group. None of them had the same blood group in the family. Due to advances in liver transplants, a swap transplant is possible now, he said.
“A swap transplant means a blood group that is not available in the family can be taken from the other family. Both the patients were critically ill and required frequent hospitalisation. We successfully and skilfully did two liver transplants in a day at the same time. Both patients had a straightforward post-operative course after the transplant,” he said.
