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Successful liver transplant operation for smallest Vietnam patient yet
  • By Hong Hai | dtinews.vn | April 22, 2019 04:00 PM
A liver transplant case for the lightest patient in Vietnam has been successfully performed at Vietnam National Children's Hospital.


 

The patient monitored at the hospital

Nguyen Pham Anh Hoa, head of the Department of Hepatology, said the patient was one year old, weighed 6.7kg and was diagnosed with cholestatic jaundice when he was only three months old. He didn't respond well to the treatment and was constantly admitted to the hospital because of liver failure.

His family agreed to the liver transplant. Luckily, the livers of both parents are compatible with the patient. In the end, the father donated his liver to the patient. Even then, it needed skill and dedication from the doctors' to carry out the operation on a 6.7-kg child.

Dr Pham Duy Hien said, "We only carried out the operation when we were sure that the success rate was high enough since two people would be operated on. This was a technical challenge to us."

Dr Le Thanh Hai, director of Vietnam National Children's Hospital oversaw the operation on April 1 with 40 doctors and experts. Dr Chin-Su Liu from Taipei Veterans Hospital came to help with the operation. The operation was completed after 12 hours. The doctors struggled to deal with the child's small blood vessels.

Hien said, "In order to deal with the blood vessels, we had to join the vessels under the microscope. However, this is also a chance for us to learn about liver transplant on children from international experts like Dr Chin-Su Liu."

The patient was put under close monitoring 13 days after the operation because of white excrement. However, on the 14 days, her health improved and the biliary system started working well.

Hien went on to say that it's especially difficult to operate liver transplant on patients weighing less than 7kg. Since last July, Dr Chin-Su Liu has come to Vietnam to help with three cases. One of which is a case where the donor and the benefactor have different blood types.

Vietnam National Children's Hospital has successfully carried out 14 liver transplants.

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