Liver transplanted between different blood groups

India’s first-ever liver transplant with mismatched blood groups was successfully performed on a two-year-old baby girl last month, paving the way for transplants where the blood group of the donor doesn’t match with that of the recipient.

India’s first-ever liver transplant with mismatched blood groups was successfully performed on a two-year-old baby girl last month, paving the way for transplants where the blood group of the donor doesn’t match with that of the recipient.

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“The most common hindrance in transplanting livers used to be of not finding donor with the same blood group of that of the recipient. The success of this transplant has opened avenues that is bound to save thousands of lives,” said Dr AS Soin, chief liver transplant surgeon, who led the team of surgeons at Gurgaon’s Medanta Hospital.

Parents of Zuaana Joad, who is suffering from Biliary Atresia, a congenital birth defect in which the bile duct is missing, had consulted all the liver specialists in their hometown Jaipur, before coming to Medanta in mid-December.

“All the doctors back home had told us that she was incurable. She was in a state of coma and when doctors at Medanta told us about this new way of surgery that could save our daughter, we agreed,” said Irshad Khan, Zuaana’s father.

In order to make her accept the A positive liver, anti-A antibodies were washed off from her blood plasma through a process called plasma pheresis.