Private hospital performs liver transplant from living donor

Tuan, liver receiver, and surgery team after the transplant at Vinmec Times City International Hospital. — Photo Vinmec

The transplant was carried out by Vinmec hospital’s doctors and several Korean experts, led by Prof. Chong Woo Chu, on April 15.

The receiver is Mai Van Tuan, 45, from northern Hai Duong Province. The voluntary donor is Hoang Trung Kien, 42, who is Tuan brother-in-law and lives in the same province.

Tuan was detected with liver cirrhosis and cancer in 2013. He went through several surgeries, which involved the removal of the left part of his liver and two-thirds of his stomach in 2014. In March this year, he was detected with cancer in the right part of his liver.

During a 13-hour surgery, a surgical team cut 60 per cent of the donor’s liver, equivalent to 700cu.cm., and successfully transplanted it into the receiver.

“Two weeks after the transplant, the liver function of the donor is working normally, the liver enzyme has reduced, while the gallbladder function has improved progressively,” Prof. Bui Duc Phu, the hospital’s director, said.

“The health of liver receiver Tuan is stable. Tuan can now walk, eat and drink normally, once his physical indicators returned to permitted levels,” Phu said.    

“For now, we can say the liver transplant was successful as long as the donor continues to live comfortably and the receiver starts adapting to his new liver,” Phu stressed.

Kien was discharged from the Vinmec hospital while Tuan is scheduled to check out from the hospital in a week.

In April, Vinmec Times City hospital doctors also collaborated with Viet Duc hospital to perform a very complicated liver transplant on Duong Thi Phuong Mai, a 15-year-old girl with acute liver failure in Thanh Hoa Province. Mai is currently in the ICU of the Vinmec Times City International Hospital.

The Vinmec Times City International Hospital is the first private medical facility to master the most complicated medical techniques in Viet Nam.

Some 20 successful liver transplants from living donors have been conducted until now in the country since 2004.

The demand for tissue and viscera transplantation is very huge in Viet Nam, especially liver transplant with some 1,500 patients awaiting liver transplant in the country. 

All expenses for the liver transplant were funded by the Vingroup’s Thien Tam Charity Fund.

Vinmec Times City International Hospital is completing legal procedures for establishing a tissue transplant centre by the end of this year.