Surgeons at Birdem Hospital performed successful liver transplantation for the second time on August 6, sixteen months after the first one.
The success creates scopes for the country’s patients to undergo the surgery at lower cost, the hospital authorities said at a press conference yesterday.
A 25-member team led by Prof Mohammad Ali conducted the 16-hour surgery of Reazul Islam, 35, a college teacher of Patuakhali. Reazul was a diabetic patient and had been suffering from liver cirrhosis.
Reazul’s maternal uncle Kium Azad, 38, donated a portion of his liver. Both the donor and recipient are now in good health.
Speaking to journalists at Birdem conference room, Prof Mohammad Ali, chief liver transplant surgeon, said a living donor can donate 732 grams of his liver that grows later.
“In developed countries, liver transplantation is not a new field of surgery. Yet in Bangladesh, it is Birdem that conducted the first liver transplantation on June 3 last year”, he said, adding that the first recipient, Kazi Ershad Ahmed, is now living a normal life.
“But it is not possible to conduct regular transplantation without setting up a liver transplantation unit, which requires government support as it is very much expensive”.
Prof Ali said it takes Tk 35-50 lakh for a liver transplantation in Bangladesh, which in Singapore costs Tk 2.5 crore and in India around Tk 70 lakh.
At present eight patients are awaiting liver transplantation in Birdem, he added.
Addressing the conference as the chief guest, Social Welfare Minister Enamul Hoque Mostofa Shaheed said the government has approved a programme to set up a liver transplantation unit at Birdem. “The project is under the consideration of Planning Commission now, and we hope it will be implemented by the next year”, he said.
Prof Saifuddin, secretary general of Bangladesh Diabetic Association, presided over the programme.
-With The Daily Star input
