Filipino baby gets liver transplant

Hyderabad: A two-year-old child from the Philippines underwent a liver transplant successfully at a city based private hospital. The child weighed about 9.5kg and was suffering from biliary atresia, a condition in which bile ducts are obliterated at birth and lead to jaundice.

If diagnosed early, portoenterostomy or Kasai procedure is useful in such cases.

“In some cases, even after early Kasai procedure, it fails and liver transplantation becomes inevitable. In this case too, the baby had undergone Kasai procedure when she was 3 months old in the Philippines. She was doing well till the age of 18 months following which she started developing jaundice. Investigations revealed decompensated liver cirrhosis due to failed Kasai and were therefore referred for liver transplantation,” said Dr Ravichand Siddachari, consultant chief of liver transplant and HPB Surgery, KIMS Hospitals.

In this case, the liver was donated by her father after tackling with his medical conditions for transplant.