The University Medical Center HCMC announced today, July 24 that the first liver transplant operation had been performed successfully after many years of preparation, with the support of medical experts from South Korea's Asan Medical Center.

Surgeons and Tran Van V. after the successful liver transplant surgery

The patient, identified as 50-year-old Tran Van V., was reportedly suffering from numerous liver diseases, including hepatitis B, cirrhosis and nonmetastatic liver cancer. He was undergoing treatment through chemical injection methods to block the blood vessels from turning into a tumor, but it was a temporary solution. Moreover, the cirrhosis of his liver had worsened, giving him only six months or up to a year to live. Therefore, a liver transplant became necessary to save his life. His wife donated part of her liver for the operation.

The team of doctors involved in the surgery comprised 11 transplant experts of the Asan Medical Center and doctors and surgeons of the University Medical Center HCMC. They performed the 8-hour operation on June 16. Tran was reportedly in stable condition after the surgery and was able to resume his daily activities a month later.

Dr. Tran Cong Duy Long, deputy head of the hospital’s hepato-biliary and pancreatic surgery department, said that with the liver’s unique ability to regenerate, the partial livers of both the donor and the recipient would grow together and remodel to form a complete organ after the transplant.

“The operation has helped Tran not only recover his health and wipe out the cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and hepatitis B but has also allowed him to live longer,” Long added.

The hospital is reputed for its hepato-biliary and pancreatic treatments, with more than 1,000 cases of liver cancer being reported at the hospital each year, Long said, adding that the cost of a liver transplant at the hospital is one-fifth that at a foreign hospital. The availability of liver transplants in Vietnam is a boon to patients and their families as well as donors.

Gaining the ability to perform organ transplants has long been the goal of the hospital. It took a long time to thoroughly prepare the necessary infrastructure, equipment and professional skills to successfully perform the first liver transplant.

The hospital will conduct its second liver transplant at the end of July and will soon start performing liver, heart and corneal transplants, turning itself into an organ transplant center in southern Vietnam, serving the entire country.

SGT