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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : August 3, 2018 12:45 PM IST
India's medical fraternity has recently witnessed another breakthrough in the area of liver treatment. A liver transplant has been conducted by using Normothermic Machine Perfusion which is a procedure that can keep a liver alive outside the body for up to 24 hours by keeping it at body temperature. According to a TradeArabia News Service report, this is a first of its kind liver transplant in Asia conducted by Aster CMI Hospital in Bangalore using OrganOx Metra device technology. The transplant has been conducted on 53-year-old Ashwath suffering from an end stage liver condition.
This wonder liver transplant is a boon for India that still suffers from a huge demand-supply disparity in terms of organ transplant, say experts. They blame lack of awareness and adequate infrastructure for the wide gap in demand and supply of organs. To add on, the organ transplant success rate in India is much lesser compared to the developed nations in the West. This is mostly because of the deterioration of functionality of organs during the preservation stage, the time of which is restricted and is as low as just 12 to 14 hours, say doctors.
According to the recent media report, Dr Sonal Asthana, senior hepatobiliary and transplant surgeon at Aster CMI Hospital, said: "Livers are usually stored in ice and preservation solution in a small sized box, where they can be kept for 12 to 14 hours before transplant. Sometimes, those less suitable for transplant do not survive the cold and begin to deteriorate, and this severely impacts the success rate of the organ transplant."
"The introduction of normothermic machine will change the way we preserve organs and allow us to check the functionality of organs before transplantation. Also, organs which are donated in far off parts of the country can now be transported to transplant centres and utilised safely," he added.
The new device allows blood circulation across the liver and it mimics the body where the doctors can check on the blood flow, let out bile and point out how well the organ might work on the patient post-transplant.
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