Liver Transplant Clinic Launched at PGIMER

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 28^th November:- Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh launched Liver Transplant Clinic (LTC) to provide comprehensive care to the patients requiring liver transplantation and those who have undergone liver transplantation.

Liver clinic was inaugurated at New OPD 4^th Floor, PGIMER Chandigarh by Prof Jagat Ram, Director PGIMER, Chandigarh. He said that patients with liver diseases is a specialised group and require focussed care with dedicated time and service. He further said that beginning of liver transplant clinic will give such platform for these patients and to boost the liver transplant program of the institute. He congratulated the liver transplant team which included hepatologists, liver transplant surgeons, anesthetists, pathologists, radiologists, pulmonologists, cardiologists, etc for starting this special clinic.  Liver Clinic OPD is busy with patient load of more than 500-600 liver patients per day and sometimes stretching upto 7-8 pm, hence Liver Transplant Clinic  is the need of the hour to meet the requirements of prospective liver  transplant patients with end-stage liver disease said Prof. R.K. Dhiman, Head , Deptt. of Hepatology, PGIMER, Chandigarh.

The focus of the liver clinic is to provide special attention to the pre- and post-transplant care to the patients with end-stage liver disease. It has been estimated that there are around 2 lac people with end-stage liver disease in our country who require liver transplant as the liver transplantis the only option available for these patients. Hence a patient with end-stage liver disease would attend Liver Transplant Clinic for both pre-transplant work up as well as post-transplant follow-up. This would result in increased number of patients registered for liver transplant as well as better follow-up. The clinic would also take care of patients  who have undergone liver transplant elsewhere, e.g., Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, etc.

Liver can be taken either from deceased- or live-donor. While maximum transplants in India are happening from live donors in which portion of liver is taken from the near relative and transplanted in the recipient (LDLT), most of the liver transplantation in the West is from deceased donor (DDLT). In PGIMER, presently all liver transplantations are DDLT. PGIMER has performed >35 DDLT. The launch of liver transplant clinic will also help in identifying potential and in starting the LDLT program in the Institute. While the average cost of liver transplantation in PGIMER is approximately 10 lac, it 30-40 lac in the private sector. This clinic is expected to give further boost to liver transplant in a public sector like PGIMER.