VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi-based Vietnam-Germany Hospital has successfully performed liver transplantation for a 44-year-old man from the central city of Da Nang in a 13-hour surgery.

The liver donor is the patient’s cousin, who is 34 years old.

Vietnam has carried out many liver transplantations but all of them were on children. This is the second liver transplantation on an adult in Vietnam, according to Dr. Nguyen Tien Quyet, director of the Vietnam-Germany Hospital.

Liver transplantation for adults is much more complicated and risky than for children because doctors have to take up at least half of the liver of the donor while it is only one third for children.

The first adult liver transplantation was in late 2007, also conducted at the Vietnam-Germany Hospital

“Besides the harmony of indexes between the donor and the recipient, the weight of liver is very important. In some case, the weight of liver of the donor is not enough for the recipient,” Quyet said.

The patient has recovered after the operation.

In May 2010, this hospital successfully performed liver, kidney and heart valve transplantations, using donated organs of a dead person.

Quyet said that Vietnam’s viscera transplantation technique is not behind any country in the world. Notably, the cost for viscera transplantation in Vietnam is very cheap, equivalent to one third of the region and the world.

However, the common problem is the scarcity of viscera for transplantation. In the world, up to 90 percent of viscera come from dead people while 90 percent of viscera for transplantation in Vietnam come from the living people.

Vietnam is about to build a centre to coordinate viscera transplantation.

PV