Doctors at the University Medical Centre in coordination with the Pediatrics Hospital No 2 in HCM City have conducted a successful liver transplant operation on a two-year-old child with biliary atresia. — Photo courtesy of the University Medical Centre

HCM CITY — Doctors at the University Medical Centre in HCM City have successfully conducted a liver transplant operation on a two-year-old female child with biliary atresia.

It is the first pediatric liver transplant carried out at the hospital.

The child from Đồng Nai Province was diagnosed with congenital biliary atresia and underwent the Kasai procedure, the first treatment for biliary atresia, at the Pediatrics Hospital No 2 when she was two months old.

Even after a successful Kasai procedure, most children with biliary atresia eventually need a liver transplant, said Dr. Trần Công Duy Long, deputy head of the hospital’s Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery.

Without a liver transplant, around 80 per cent of children with biliary atresia cannot survive to age 2, Long said.

The child was hospitalised with serious complications of biliary atresia, and a liver transplant was the only cure, he said.

On November 15, doctors at the University Medical Centre in coordination with the Pediatrics Hospital No.2 performed the life-saving operation with remote medical consultation from experts in Japan.

The child received a portion of a healthy liver taken from her 30-year-old father.

Four weeks after the operation, she recovered and was discharged from the hospital on December 21.

The liver donor was in stable condition one week after the operation.

Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Hoàng Bắc, director of the University Medical Centre, said the first successful pediatric liver transplant marked an important milestone in organ transplant operations performed at the hospital.

The hospital will strengthen cooperation with experts in the field of pediatric liver transplants to help more children who need a liver transplant to survive. — VNS