Healthcare workers are undergoing liver replacement surgery. Photo by Li Juanjuan
Hefei, December 17 (Li Juanjuan, Zhang Qiang) reporter learned from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University on the 17th: The hospital recently successfully completed the first case of living donor liver liver transplantation between sisters and brothers in Anhui - a 36-year-old sister was not afraid of the risk of surgery, donated 55% of the liver to save the 32-year-old brother with liver cancer.
When Mr. Li, 32, who has long suffered from hepatitis B, aggravated liver cirrhosis and complicated by liver cancer, came to the First Affiliated Hospital of Anyi University, the doctor determined that he did not have the conditions for routine surgery, and liver transplantation was the only way to save his life. However, it is difficult to wait for a suitable liver source in a short period of time, and you may even lose the opportunity to transplant.
After learning that living donor liver transplants can also be performed among relatives, Mr. Li's sister resolutely decided to donate her liver to her brother. The doctor talked to her sister several times to inform her of the risks of surgery. The sister's attitude was very firm: "My brother is so young, I have no other ideas than to save him."
Zhao Hongchuan, director of the Organ Transplant Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University, fully evaluated and demonstrated, formulated a rigorous surgical plan, and decided to operate on the sisters and brothers on December 13.
Under the close cooperation and meticulous preoperative preparation of the operating room, anesthesia department, blood transfusion department, intensive care and other disciplines, the operation began at 9 o'clock on the same day. The team of surgical experts was divided into two groups, the recipient group experts Geng Xiaoping and Wang Guobin led the team to first begin to explore the younger brother and the diseased liver free, on the basis of the exploration to confirm the feasibility of the younger brother's liver transplantation, the donor group experts Zhao Hongchuan and Huang Fan led the team to start implementing the sister's right hemihepatic resection.
Under the confirmation of intraoperative ultrasound and cholangiography, in order to ensure the safety of the sister's life during the operation, after 4 hours of intensive surgery, the doctor obtained the right half of the sister's liver without the middle vein of the liver. So how does the right half of the liver without the veins in the liver function normally in the brother's body? Director Zhao Hongchuan's team carefully spliced the 8th segment of the donor liver and the right venous outflow tract of the liver, and used the pre-existing allogeneic blood vessel bypass to reconstruct the venous return channel of the 5th segment of the donor liver.
On December 17, my sister (second from right) visited her younger brother (first from right) with the support of a doctor. Photo by Li Juanjuan
In the end, under the microscopic anastomosis technology, the medical team successfully connected the sisters and brothers in blood for 12 hours. At present, both sisters and brothers are recovering well.
On December 17, the sister, with the help of a doctor, went to visit her brother. The younger brother took his sister's hand, and his eyes were moist. The sister wiped away the tears for her brother: "Don't cry, the hardest pass we have already broken through, let's cheer together, go home early."
"At present, the liver donated by the sister is very 'powerful' in the younger brother's body and works normally. The liver has a strong regenerative capacity, and it is expected that in about two weeks, the sister's liver function will return to normal. Zhao Hongchuan said.
Zhao Hongchuan introduced that living liver transplantation represents the medical level of a hospital, a region and even a country to a certain extent. At present, there are two ways of liver transplantation, one is social organ transplantation, in which case the waiting time cannot be determined; the other is kinship transplantation, which requires that the donor must be three generations of blood relatives or couples. Living donor liver transplantation among relatives adults is an extension of conventional whole liver transplantation and is the most complex type of liver transplantation with higher technical and ethical requirements.
It is reported that the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University is the first batch of liver transplant qualification hospitals in China, with a complete range of hospital disciplines, providing a high platform support for clinical liver transplantation technology, and is the earliest liver transplantation in Anhui Province, the largest number of completed cases, and the only hospital that independently and successfully carries out living liver transplantation among adult relatives. (End)