Hyderabad (The Hawk): At the KIMS hospital in Hyderabad, medical professionals performed a liver and kidney transplant on a 50-year-old patient for the first time in India. Her liver weighed 12 kg.
A group of reputable surgeons, including three liver transplant surgeons and a kidney transplant specialist, carried out simultaneous liver and kidney transplantations.
The surgery was carried out in the first week of November, the hospital revealed on Thursday.
Usha Agarwal, a homemaker from Siliguri in West Bengal, is the patient whose life was saved and who has been returned to normalcy.
Doctors claimed that her liver was so colossal that it took up her entire abdomen and displaced her intestines. A healthy liver weighs little more than 1.5 kg and is located in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.
She had a hernia, a big liver, ascites in her abdomen, and it was difficult for her to move. In 2019, when she first felt heavy, she was encouraged to get a transplant.
Cysts (fluid-filled cavities) arise in the kidneys and liver as a result of gene abnormalities in polycystic liver and kidney disease, according to Dr. Ravichand Siddachari, Consultant and Chief of Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery. No symptoms appear in the patients till they are in their 30s. They start to experience the symptoms as the cysts enlarge. They have the potential to get extremely large, and the resultant buildup of water in the belly can cause breathing issues and hernias. As their kidney functions deteriorate, they might require dialysis. All of these symptoms were present in this patient, with the exception of a large, ruptured hernia.
"Unsurprisingly, given that the liver had taken up the entire abdomen, it was one of the trickiest procedures to perform. Detaching the liver from its connections while preserving the vital organs needed for transplantation was a difficult feat. But we were able to successfully transplant a fresh liver. Dr. Uma Maheshwara Rao, Consultant Urologist and Renal transplant surgeon, revealed that the replacement kidney was implanted through the same cut after making a pouch in the belly (usually, another cut is required for a kidney transplant).
The fact that the patient had healed well and had been released from the hospital pleased the doctors who had carried out two uncommon transplantations on that person on the same day.
It was one of the most fulfilling operations because it not only saved the patient's life but also enabled her to finally be free of all physical and emotional pain and suffering. Without any issues, she can start carrying out ordinary tasks, they stated.
Dr. Ravichand Siddachari, Consultant and Chief of Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery, Dr. Sachin Daga, Senior Consultant Hepatobiliary Pancreas & Liver Transplant Surgeon, Dr. K.N. Paramesha, Consultant HPB & Liver Transplant Surgeon, and Dr. Uma Maheshwara Rao, Consultant Urologist and Renal Transplant Surgeon, successfully completed the 14-hour marathon operation.
(Inputs from Agencies)