Pinoy docs can perform liver surgery

If your old liver is giving you problems, you can line up for a new one at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) and installation is part of the procedure.

Transplant surgeons at the NKTI yesterday declared as a success a liver transplant performed by an all-Filipino team of surgeons right here in the Philippines.

Oliver Lim, 24, was suffering from end-stage liver disease or cirrhosis when he received his liver transplant at the NKTI. Lim’s donor was a 32-year-old male who had just died from a severe beating.

Lim received his new liver during a complex and grueling 10-hour operation last May 23. His transplant was finally declared a success yesterday after a critical three-month observation period.

NKTI executive director Dr. Enrique Ona presented to media yesterday the surgical team that saved Lim’s life led by Dr. Carlo Ramirez. On Ramirez’s team were transplant surgeons Vanessa de Villa and Benito Purugganan, anesthesiologist Jaime Velasquez and gastroenterologist and hepatologist Ernesto Que.

"Patients who need to undergo liver transplants need not look abroad. Oliver’s successful transplant operation demonstrates that we have the expertise, the technology and the facilities here at NKTI for liver transplants and for post-transplant maintenance as well," Ona said.

"Liver transplantation is now a standard and proven therapy for end-stage liver diseases and selected cases of primary liver cancers," Ramirez said. "We offer that here at NKTI to any patient who needs it."

Ramirez is a member of the NKTI’s Department of Organ Transplantation specializing in transplant surgery and hepato-billiary surgery (surgery of the liver and related vascular systems). He trained overseas in transplant surgery for over six years – three years of which were spent under the tutelage of world-famous liver transplant surgeon and pioneer Thomas Starzi of the Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Ramirez helped establish the most successful liver transplant program in Saudi Arabia during a three-year stint at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Riyadh.

Two of the most common liver diseases which severely damage the liver and may result in the patient’s need for a liver transplant are Hepatitis B cirrhosis in adults and biliary atresia in children, medical experts said.

Two types of liver transplant can be performed: Whole liver transplants using a liver from a brain-dead organ donor; and a segmental organ transplant where sections of a liver from either a brain-dead or living donor are transplanted into the recipient. If the organ used in the segmental liver transplant comes from a living donor, specialists said the best donor is a close relation of the beneficiary.

Unlike kidney transplants that require exact matches in blood and tissue type, liver transplant matching is easier to achieve. All that is required for a donor-recipient match is an exact blood-type match.

In Lim’s case, the brain-dead donor’s entire liver was transplanted and functioned almost immediately after implantation into Lim’s body. It was learned that Lim’s recovery was swift and he was discharged from the hospital after three weeks.