3-year-old Omani girl successfully undergoes liver, kidney transplant in Chennai

This picture has been used for representational purpose

A three-year-old girl from Oman got a new lease of life with a successful dual live-donor liver and kidney transplant performed simultaneously by doctors at a private hospital here.

Doctors at Rela Hospital, spearheaded by Prof Mohamed Rela, performed dual live donor transplant with the help of a segment of liver donated by the girl's uncle and left kidney from her mother.

The surgery took just over 10 hours. According to Rela Hospital, the baby girl was diagnosed with renal failure when she was 10 months old and has been on dialysis since then.

She was also diagnosed to have primary hyperoxaluria, which is an enzyme defect in the liver leading to oxalate deposit all over the body (heart, kidneys, joints, eyes) and oxalate stones resulting in kidney damage, the hospital said.

With liver and kidney transplants the only options for the child's survival, she was referred to Rela Hospital. At the time of arrival, the child was 3 years 3 months old and weighed only 8.2 kg (grossly underweight) due to kidney failure which was hampering her growth.

Doctors at Rela hospital decided to wait till the child's weight reached 10 kg, the minimum weight for the transplant.

However, since the child's health was deteriorating, the doctors discussed with the child's family and decided on an immediate transplant.

It was challenging to find a donor for kidney transplant for the baby's size and age and there were too many complications as adult kidney is quite large and that of a child abdomen is small to place her mother's kidney as the child was underweight, said Dr Gomathy Narasimhan, Senior Consultant, HPB Surgery, Liver and Renal Transplant Surgeon.

According to Narasimhan, the blood vessels of the child are very tiny to manage the blood flow pressure from the adult kidney as the half litre of blood flows in an adult kidney in an hour which is equivalent to the blood flow in a baby's whole body in an hour.

However, the dual organ transplant was performed successfully on the child on January 28th, and post the transplant, the child is doing well and her weight has increased to 9 kg, Rela Hospital said.

During the post operative period, the child posed several challenges as she was on peritoneal dialysis since 10 months of age, and was severely malnourished with weak bones.

The fact that she was significantly underweight for her age needed very focussed teamwork with attention to all aspects including nutrition, infection control, and immune suppressant management.

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