PUNE Doctors at the Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune performed a liver transplant from a brain-dead donor to a recipient with a pre-existing HIV condition.
The liver transplant team at Ruby Hall Clinic successfully completed the transplant, to be one of only a handful of liver transplant units in the country to have successfully done so.
The 54-year-old resident of Pune suffered from critical end-stage liver disease due to rare immunological damage owing to the HIV infection.
His MELD score (which ranks the degree of sickness and need for a transplant) was 22 which implied a three-month mortality rate.
Like most HIV patients, he too was advised the use of HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) which enables HIV patients to live longer lives.
Aarti Gokhale, transplant coordinator of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Committee (ZTCC), Pune, said, “Earlier we have had kidney transplants, but this is the first time an HIV positive patient has successfully received a liver.”
The patient became the perfect candidate for a liver transplant after the blood group matched the donor.
Both the recipient and the donor were screened for Covid-19.
Dr Manoj Shrivastav, chief hepatobiliary and liver transplant surgeon, said, “In addition to the detailed decision-making that exists with most organ offers, the presence of HIV infection and the current pandemic added a new layer of dual complexity to this particular case with regard to the protection of the operating surgical team, nurses and paramedical staff. One was the protection from exposure to body fluids, and needle stick injury, owing to the HIV positive status of the patient. The second was strict universal safety precautions from the Covid-19 infection. We minimised personnel in the operation theatre and strictly adhered to the use of PPE kits while meticulously following internationally laid down universal safety precautions guidelines.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr Manoj Shrivastav, chief hepatobiliary and liver transplant surgeon, said, “In addition to the detailed decision-making that exists with most organ offers, the presence of HIV infection and the current pandemic added a new layer of dual complexity to this particular case with regard to the protection of the operating surgical team, nurses and paramedical staff. One was the protection from exposure to body fluids, and needle stick injury, owing to the HIV positive status of the patient. The second was strict universal safety precautions from the Covid-19 infection. We minimised personnel in the operation theatre and strictly adhered to the use of PPE kits while meticulously following internationally laid down universal safety precautions guidelines.”
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