A 32-year-old-man from Mettupalayam in Coimbatore recently underwent an across-blood group (ABO-Incompatible) liver transplant at MIOT International hospital.
The patient, D. Premnath, will return to normal routine next month.
A team leader at Amazon, Premnath had suddenly fallen ill. His abdomen and legs were bloated. His mother noticed that his eyes were yellow, and suspected jaundice.
Investigations revealed that Premnath had jaundice, after which he was hospitalised for 15 days and underwent a plasma therapy. However, when his condition did not improve, he sought treatment at a private multi-specialty hospital in Coimbatore.
He was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. It was later confirmed that he had liver failure, and was advised to undergo a liver transplant. Mr. Premnath approached MIOT, where he was diagnosed with severe jaundice owing to bile duct disease. Bile had accumulated in his liver, leading to its failure. Despite being on intensive care optimisation, his condition did not improve.
Mr. Premnath’s blood group was A negative, and had to to deal with a long wait for a cadaveric liver. Though his wife was willing to donate a portion of her liver, her blood group was B positive.
Soon, doctors decided to perform an across-blood group transplant on Premnath. His immune system was weakened to prevent his body from rejecting the donor organ.
‘Over 85% success’
Karthik Mathivanan, director of Liver and Multi Organ Transplant, who led the team that performed the surgery, said the global success rate exceeded 85% for ABO-incompatible liver transplant.
Joshua Danial, consultant, Transfusion Medicine at MIOT, said blood transfusion for ABO-incompatible blood group transplant was challenging.
MIOT has been performing ABO-incompatible kidney transplant, and we did it for liver transplant, he said.
The transplant was done on January 23 under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
Normally, in a high-end hospital, the transplant could cost anywhere between ₹30 lakh and ₹60 lakh depending on the hospital, doctors pointed out.
Published – March 28, 2025 12:51 am IST
