Coimbatore hospitals perform swap liver transplants

CHENNAI: Two liver failure patients in Coimbatore -- a 59-year-old in GEM Hospital and a 53-year-old in Sri Ramakrishna Hospital -- were desperate when doctors told them a transplant would be complicated as their wives' organs were incompatible.

However, their doctors found a possibility for a swap transplant, which allows patients to exchange donors with another family in a similar situation.Both hospitals performed the surgeries simultaneously in two different operation theatres located 5 km apart in Coimbatore. “Real-time video feeds were established to monitor surgical progress and coordinate liver retrieval and transplantation. Dedicated ambulances equipped with cold chain systems were kept on standby, but both donors and recipients remained in their respective hospitals throughout,” said liver transplant surgeon Dr N Anand Vijay.The surgery was simultaneously performed in both hospitals on July 3. “This required navigating a host of legal, ethical, and logistical challenges,” said GEM Hospital founder and chairman Dr C Palanivelu. “We had to obtain special clearance from the Tamil Nadu State Transplant Authority to transport the organ from one hospital to the other,” he said.The surgeries helped patients avoid expensive ABO-incompatible liver transplantation, said Sri Ramakrishna Hospital liver transplant surgeon Dr R Jayapal.