For the first time in India, doctors at KIMS Hospital in Hyderabad removed a liver weighing 12 kg and performed liver and kidney transplant on a 50-year-old woman.
According to the hospital, with the available data, this was the first time in India that an operation was successfully performed on a liver that weighed 12 kg.
Though the surgery was performed in the first week of November, the hospital disclosed the procedure on Thursday, 8 December, after concluding that the procedure was successful and evaluating the patient’s condition.
The liver of 50-year-old Usha Agarwal from Siliguri in West Bengal was so gigantic that it occupied her entire abdomen, displacing the intestines.
Under normal and healthy circumstances, a liver weighs a maximum of 1.5 kg and occupies the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.
According to the hospital, it was difficult for Agarwal to walk with such a heavy liver, collection of water (Ascites) in the belly, and hernia.
“She started feeling heaviness in 2019, which was when she was advised transplantation,” said Dr Ravichand Siddachari, consultant and chief of Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery, in a statement.
“Polycystic liver and kidney disease is a hereditary condition in which cysts (fluid-filled cavities) are formed in kidneys and liver due to mutations in the genes,” he explained.
“The patients do not develop any symptoms till they are in their 30s. As the cysts grow, they start experiencing the symptoms. They can grow enormously in size while the subsequent collection of water in the belly can lead to hernia and breathing problems,” added Siddachari.
“They may need dialysis due to worsening kidney functions. This patient had all these symptoms apart from a huge hernia, which had ruptured,” he said.
The procedure
It was a difficult task to remove the liver from its attachments and also preserve the important structures required for transplantation, said the doctors who performed the procedure.
They added that they succeeded in transplanting a new liver.
“The new kidney was transplanted through the same cut after creating a pouch in the abdomen (normally an additional cut needs to be made for transplanting a kidney),” explained Dr Uma Maheshwara Rao, consultant urologist and renal transplant surgeon.
The surgeons, who performed two rare transplantations on one individual on the same day, were delighted that the patient recovered well and was discharged from the hospital.
The entire procedure was performed over a duration of a mammoth 14 hours.
“It was one of the most satisfying operations, which not only saved the life of a patient but also helped her in getting rid of all physical and mental anxieties and miseries, once and for all. She can start performing routine activities without any hitch,” a surgeon said.
