Kathmandu, Feb 1: Liver transplantation can be successfully carried out within Nepal itself now. Nepali doctors for the first time in the country conducted liver transplantation at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH).
Before this, liver transplantation used to be done in India and in Nepal itself with the help of Indian doctors. But it is said that Nepali doctors themselves are capable for this at present.
A team of Nepali physicians led by Prof Dr Ramesh Singh Bhandari, Chief of TUTH Liver Transplant Unit, carried out a successful liver transplant operation on a 41-year-old man on January 12. The person’s 40-year-old wife had donated the organ for the transplantation.
Dr Bhandari shared that after conducting this operation they are now confident that Nepali doctors can carry out liver transplantation within the country itself.
“We have become successful in liver transplantation within Nepal itself. It is a historic and a milestone for liver transplantation within Nepal itself. Before this, we were doing this medical procedure with the help of foreign doctors,” he said. According to him, the help of Indian doctors was taken for carrying out liver transplantation at the hospital before this. This is the11th successful liver transplantation done at the TUTH.
According to Dr Bhandari, both the liver donor and receiver are in good health. The organ recipient has been discharged from hospital today morning itself after recovery. The donor was discharged in 10 days of the liver transplantation.
Senior hepatologist Dr Bhandari said that a team of 50 doctors and surgeons had transplanted liver on that person in about 12 hours.
Liver transplantation at TUTH costs in the range of Rs 2.5 million to Rs 3 million whereas it costs approximately Rs 10 million in foreign countries.
Liver transplantation is done at TUTH and the Human Organ Transplant Centre, both government hospitals, in Nepal. This service was started at the Centre in 2016 and at TUTH in 2019. RSS
