New program to transplant a liver fragment from a living donor for an adult recipient has been launched

The Department of General, Transplant and Liver Surgery UCC MUW has launched the only program in Poland to transplant a liver fragment from a living donor for an adult recipient. The first transplantation was performed on October 9 under the direction of Prof. Michał Grąt. The recipient of the right lobe of the liver was a 19-year-old man with a rare liver cancer, the donor was his 29-year-old sister.

The procedure required the simultaneous performance of two surgeries - the harvesting of a liver fragment from the donor and the removal of the liver, followed by the implantation of the harvested fragment in the recipient. The entire procedure took 12 hours. It involved 6 surgeons, 2 anesthesiologists and 8 nurses. The operation to transplant the liver fragment was performed by Professor Michał Grąt, assisted by Dr. Piotr Remiszewski and Maciej Krasnodębski, MD, PhD. The harvesting of the liver fragment and the preparation of the graft were performed by Prof. Waldemar Patkowski, assisted by Dr. Ireneusz Grzelak and Dr. Konrad Kobryń. Both operations have so far proceeded without complications. The donor was discharged from the hospital on the fifth postoperative day, the recipient is currently being rehabilitated in the general ward.

The living donor liver transplant program increases the availability of organs and thus reduces the waiting time for transplantation. In addition, it allows more patients to benefit from transplant treatment, including those with oncological diseases.

In addition to the already mentioned surgeons, in the transplant procedure were also involved: anesthesiologists - Marta Dec, Jolanta Piwowarska; a team of operating nurses - Anna Wąsik, Beata Zdanowska, Kinga Marciniec, Grażyna Liwińska, Julia Górska; a team of anesthesia nurses - Ewa Gniatkowska, Weronika Karnkowska, Ewelina Pyzińska; as well as transplant coordinator - Krzysztof Zając
 

(UCC MUW  materials)