A challenging liver transplant was performed on a young mother six months post-delivery who suffered from acute hepatic failure, by a team of doctors at Pace Hospital, Madhapur. The woman has since recovered and is ready to be discharged.
Doctors at Pace Hospital helped the lady who had slipped into a coma after she suffered from an acute Hepatic failure. The has not only revived but has since recovered.
The lady came to the hospital after suffering from acute hepatic failure due to jaundice that she had been suffering from, for over a month. The woman had been consuming local medicines for the same which resulted in liver disease and hepatic failure pushing the woman into a coma. She was placed on the ventilator with severely low platelet count and blood clotting.
It was in this condition that she was shifted to Pace hospital for a possible emergency transplant. “It was a very difficult and challenging scenario in acute liver failure with infection, seizures, grade 4 coma, and such high bilirubin. The situation changes minute to minute and chances of mortality after transplant goes as high as 50 percent,” said Chief hepatologist, Dr Govind Verma.
This young patient was listed for an urgent transplant under Jeevandan but as no liver was available and her condition was rapidly deteriorating, they decided to go for living donor transplantation.
‘The challenge in Acute liver failure is that the patient assessment and preparation has to be done rapidly. The golden hours before transplantation are very crucial as the patient may suddenly collapse due to bleeding in the brain or severe infection,” said transplant anesthetist, Dr. Manjunath.
“Preoperatively as her bilirubin was very high the hepatology team performed an urgent liver dialysis – Plasma exchange to bring her bilirubin down from 30 to 15 and reduce brain swelling,” said transplant surgeon, Dr Phani Krishna.
After bringing jaundice, brain swelling, and infection under control, she underwent an emergency transplant. The right half of her brother’s liver was donated to the patient. Despite the numerous challenges, the surgery and the post-op recovery went smoothly.
The patient had a dramatic recovery as her coma completely reversed within 12 hours, post-surgery. The woman who has a six-month-old baby normalized within 7 days and was ready for discharge on day 10, post-transplant.
The patient’s husband said that they had given up hopes after 2 weeks of coma on the ventilator with such high levels of jaundice. He thanked Pace Hospitals for their prompt action and for giving her a second life.
“After completing a dozen liver transplants in past 6 months, at Pace, this challenging acute liver failure case highlights the combined efforts of our liver ICU, hepatology, and transplant team which is geared up to take on more challenging cases, which establish Pace as the centre of excellence for liver transplant,” said Dr Govindverma.
