Vietnam doctors perform liver transplant on one-year-old baby

Tuan Minh 18:28, 2019/04/22

For patient weighing only 6.7 kg like the girl and small blood vessels that must be connected under an electron microscope, liver transplant is extremely difficult.

A liver transplant operation on a one-year-old girl was successfully conducted by doctos at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi, making her the youngest patient ever to receive a liver transplant in Vietnam.

The patient after 20 days of liver transplantation and her doctors. Photo: Hong Hai

The baby was diagnosed with cholestatic jaundice by a rare syndrome of biliary metabolic disorder, PFIC type 2. She responded poorly to treatment and had severe jaundice symptoms, hepatosplenomegaly and hepatic failure.

Doctor Nguyen Pham Anh Hoa, head of the Hepatology Department under the National Hospital of Pediatrics, said that if the liver transplant operation was not timely, the child would die from liver failure.

Luckily, test indicators showed that her parents were both suitable to donate their liver to their child.

Forty Vietnamese doctors with the professional support of foreign transplant experts conducted the liver transplant surgery for the baby. After 12 hours, the doctors successfully grafted a part of her father’s left liver to the baby. The girl’s size of some very small (only about 1.3 mm) blood vessels caused the major problems for the surgeons.

Dr. Pham Duy Hien, head of the hospital's Department of Surgery, said that for patient of only 6.7 kg like the girl and small blood vessels that must be connected under an electron microscope, liver transplant is extremely difficult.

Currently, the patient’s health is well. She gained 500g after 20 days of the transplant.

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