What is a deceased donor liver transplant?
After a person is declared brain dead, and when their family members decide to donate the vital organs like the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas, intestines etc., and when these organs are transplanted to a recipient, the procedure is called deceased brain dead donor transplant. When vital organs are transplanted immediately after clinical death it is called deceased donation after cardiac death.
More commonly, a liver transplant is done with donation from a related living donor due to a decreased availability of deceased donor organs. And if there are no potential donors in the family, or the donor’s organ is rejected due to some sort of medical reasons, then a deceased donor liver transplant is the only option.
What is the procedure for a deceased donor liver transplant?
For a patient to be eligible for a deceased donor liver transplant, they have to be stable, as there is a long waiting list for such organs. To be deemed stable, they have to undergo a comprehensive checkup at the hospital.
After the checkup, once you are deemed fit for transplant, you have to register yourself with a hospital and with the State Transplant Authority. Once that is done, you will be put on a waiting list. Also we facilitate registration in our network hospitals for other state transplant authorities and national transplant authorities.
Why do you have to be stable to be able to qualify for a deceased donor liver transplant?
You have to be stable as the waiting list in the country is huge. You might never know how long it will take to get your turn. If you are lucky, it might take a few months. The patient must have a stable disease progression. Also the waiting list movement depends on the blood group. For eg recipients with blood group O have a long wait list and it’s preferable to undergo living donor liver transplant or swap liver transplants or ABO incompatible living donor liver transplants rather than waiting a longer period and the risk of mortality in the waiting period is high. The waiting list is so huge that every year up to 70% of the patients die every year waiting for the organs.
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Is there a way to increase the probability?
In order to maximize your probability, you can register yourself at MGM Healthcare’s Liver Transplant centre. MGM Healthcare has tied up with various centres across India to ensure maximum chances of getting an organ.
What are marginal organs?
When the liver is about 30-40% of fat or when the donor is more than 70 years of age, and the donor has been sub-optimally managed during the course of his hospital stay, then these organs are called marginal organs.
In many cases, marginal organs are either not suitable for transplant, or they become non performing grafts, also called PNF(Primary Non Functional Graft). At MGM Healthcare, they offer hypothermic machine perfusion of the liver, which is the latest technological advancement in today’s world and only such centre offering this advanced technique commonly.
In this process, they take the marginal organs and put them under a liver pump machine. The machine ensures the organ viability and safety for the transplant. The machine checks the main characteristics of the organ and sees if it functions properly or not.
So if the organ shows signs of good viability, then one can be sure that the organs can be safely transplanted, and the transplant will be a success. So when you and your loved ones need a deceased donor liver transplant at the earliest, then reach out to MGM Healthcare.
