Different blood groups no barrier in conducting successful liver transplant

CHENNAI: ABO incompatibility between a donor and a recipient is generally considered a hindrance to liver transplant. A city-based private hospital performed a 12-hour rare surgery by carrying out a living-donor liver transplant on a 45-year-old patient overcoming the challenge of the blood group incompatibility.

The patient from Kerala who had developed chronic liver failure was waiting for a liver transplant for more than 3 years. With a huge demand-supply gap, the patient was unable to get a suitable cadaveric organ. Plus, he had no compatible living donor in his family.

“Liver transplantation is the only option for a patient who is diagnosed with either end-stage liver cirrhosis or cancer. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of organs due to a huge divide between demand for donor liver and liver donation. Yet, with advancements in the field, transplantation using ABO-incompatible grafts for living donors is an alternate strategy,” said Dr Karthik Mathivanan, senior consultant and associate director, Institute of Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery, MGM Healthcare.

Health experts explained the procedure by simply saying: “First, we stop the production of new blood group antibodies by rituximab. We remove existing blood group antibodies with the glycosorb filter. Using specialised induction agent (basiliximab), living donor liver transplant is performed with a blood group that’s incompatible with the donor.”