A 37-year-old patient recovers after a liver transplant at the University Medical Centre in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of the hospital

HCM CITY — Doctors at the University Medical Centre in HCM City have performed liver transplants for 11 patients two years after being trained in the procedure by doctors from South Korean’s ASAN Medical Centre.

The two latest operations were performed independently by Vietnamese doctors, Trần Công Duy Long, deputy head of the hospital’s hepatobilitary and pancreatic surgery department, said.

The two patients were in urgent need of a liver transplant to survive, he told a meeting on Tuesday (June 30).

Doctors had to perform the surgeries without doctors from ASAN since it was impossible for them to travel to Việt Nam due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

H.V.L, 37, was diagnosed with hepatitis B seven years ago, which developed into liver cirrhosis.

He luckily received an entire liver from a brain-dead woman donor in Hà Nội, and the transplant was performed on May 18.

He was discharged two weeks later and has resumed normal activities, doctors said.

Another patient, H.T.P, 61, suffered from chronic hepatitis C, which developed into liver cirrhosis.

A liver transplant was indicated as the best treatment since she had serious complications, which posed a 50 per cent threat of causing death within three months.

On June 15, she received a transplant with a portion of the liver taken from her 29-year-old son.

The son was discharged from hospital a week later and his liver recovered quickly.

The mother is now in stable condition.

These surgeries are an important milestone for the hospital and promise to help save patients with liver cirrhosis and liver cancer through a transplant, Trương Quang Bình, deputy director of the hospital, said.

The hospital plans to perform heart transplants by 2021 and lung transplants by 2022, he added. — VNS