MIOT conducts talk on advanced tech in organ transplants

But with donor shortage and a rising demand for liver transplantation, the need to utilise such fatty livers has become real, said medical experts at the interactive session on Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion (HOPE) at a city hospital recently.

India’s first ever interactive session on HOPE was conducted at the MIOT Hospital recently and senior liver and kidney transplant surgeons from the city participated to explore this latest technology in organtransplantation.

Dr Ilango Sethu, Hepato Pancreatico, Biliary Surgery and Transplant Surgeon stated that the fatty livers can be used for successful liver transplantation with the latest technologies. “Marginal organs are from elderly donors, either with fatty liver or some form of damage during brain death. These organs have a higher risk of failure in the immediate post-transplant period. But technologies like Hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion, these organs can be revived, allowing more patients to benefit from organ transplantation,” said Dr Ilango.

In liver and kidney transplantation, donor organs are normally preserved outside the body in special preservative solutions. A liver can be stored outside the body in such solutions for up to 8 hours without any damage. But storing for longer than the prescribed period damages the organ, increasing the chances of organ failure.

The doctors say that HOPE pumps preservative fluid into the organ at a temperature of 4-10 degrees, and oxygen is added to the fluid. This reloads the cells with Adenosine triphosphate or ATP (energy currency of the cell) and reduces the number of damaging molecules released from the liver during transplantation.