Successful liver transplantation at Gleneagles

A 50-year-old businessman from Puducherry has been overweight since childhood and he had developed diabetes, hypertension, and fatty liver disease as complications. His weight when he was healthy was around 130 kg, but it had increased to 170kg when he developed end-stage liver disease and multiple complications.

The patient visited Gleneagles Global Health City, Chennai in the mid of November 2022 in critical condition. After undergoing tests to assess his fitness, he was placed on the cadaveric liver transplant waiting list on November 24.

The liver failure was affecting his brain function because of which he was becoming confused and drowsy -- called Hepatic encephalopathy, in medical terminology. In January 2023 it was decided that his best chance of survival was an urgent living donor liver transplantation by the team of doctors led by Dr Joy Varghese, Director, Department of Hepatology & Transplant Hepatology, Gleneagles Global Health City and Dr Mettu Srinivas Reddy, Director of Liver transplantation and Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery at the hospital. Finding a suitable donor was an immense challenge. Fortunately, the patient’s nephew came forward to donate his liver.

As a backup, the patient’s wife was also tested as the second donor if a dual lobe transplant was necessary. The successful surgery using the partial liver from a single donor took just over 10 hours. After the surgery, the patient stayed in the ICU for 40 days to support his recovery.