Liver transplant has been initiated in the country. This was made possible at the initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The prime minister took the move to so that the low income and marginalised people of the country could get the medical benefits of liver transplant. Liver transplant surgery is performed under the supervision of the Department of Hepatobiliary, Pancreatic and Liver Transplant Surgery of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) has successfully carried out a liver transplant operation.
The BSMMU authorities claimed at a press conference on Sunday (January 15) that liver transplant surgeons and anesthesia team from Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, India assisted in the 12-hour long surgery.
In the press conference, BSMMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed said that Montezar's liver was donated by his sister Shamima Akhtar (43) and, 60 percent of his healthy liver was removed from his body.
Montezar's cirrhotic liver was completely removed and 60 percent of Shamima's healthy liver was transplanted. Liver donor Shamima's liver will regenerate gradually. Currently, the patient is healthy. This surgery was done on the body of Montezar Rahman (53). He was suffering from non-B, non-seasonal 'end stage liver disease'.
Professor Md Professor Md Mohshen Chowdhury, Professor Dr Bidhan Chandra Das, Professor Dr Abdullah Md Abu Ayub Ansari and Assistant Professor Dr Sarwar Ahmed Sobhan were on the side of the liver recipient while Professor Md Zulfikar Rahman Khan, Dr Md Noor Elahi, Dr Mohammad Saif Uddin and Dr Ashish Saha were on the side of the donor in the surgery.
BSMMU Vice Chancellor said that under the direction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the initiative of liver transplant programme has been taken so that the low-income and marginalized people of the country could get this surgical facility.
The liver transplant operation was a living donor liver transplant. This means that a part of the liver is removed from a donor related to the patient and transplanted into the patient's body (the patient's entire cirrhotic liver is removed).
The Vice-chancellor said that 8 million people are affected by liver disease in Bangladesh every year. Among them, about 23 thousand died. However, Affluent patients are going abroad for liver transplant at a cost of 30 lakhs to cores of taka. But the poor are dying without being able to get a liver transplant so it is possible to save about four to five thousand patients a year through liver transplantation.
