The first successful liver transplant surgery on an adult in Ho Chi Minh City was performed on a 52-year-old woman from Dak Nong Province by doctors in Cho Ray Hospital on October 12.
Patient C.T.K.D, from the highland province of Dak Nong had suffered from liver failure since 2010. After many tests and consultations, doctors at Cho Ray Hospital and counterparts from the ASAN Medical Center in South Korea decided to conduct a liver transplant on the woman.
The entire transplant procedure was conducted by 37 surgeons of Cho Ray Hospital and a 16-member team from the ASAN Medical Center in South Korea.
Doctors worked in two groups; one group removed the liver of the donor, the woman’s own son, a 22-year-old student of Information Technology at the HCMC Foreign Language and Informatics University; and the other group removed the woman’s liver to transplant the new healthy liver.
Dr. Tran Minh Truong, deputy director of Cho Ray Hospital, said surgeons had used the Cusa knife for the operation as the tool causes very little bleeding and is time-saving.
So far Vietnam has conducted 17 successful liver transplant surgeries on children and six on adults. Over the last two years, Cho Ray hospital has sent doctors and nurses to the ASAN Medical Center in South Korea for training in liver transplant. Doctors were also sent to the US and some European countries to learn more about the procedure and collect data and gather experience in liver transplant.
The cost of this particular transplant operation was more than VND1 billion (US$48,000), which will be funded by the Health Ministry and Cho Ray Hospital, confirmed hospital doctors.
On the same day, a successful kidney transplant was conducted on a 46-year-old man from Tu Liem District in Hanoi at the Hospital 19.8 by police doctors. The kidney donor was a 20-year-old man from Can Gio District in Ho Chi Minh City, who was not any blood relative.
The kidney recipient had suffered from liver failure since 2006 and was undergoing treatment for his condition which was gradually worsening. Before the surgery, doctors had conducted many blood tests which showed that both donor and recipient were physically compatible.
