Liver transplantation

A century ago, a liver transplant seemed fantastic. Today, such operations can prolong thousands of lives.

Of course , With simple liver diseases, drugs could also help, but in some cases (such as cirrhosis), medicines are already powerless. Gradually, the growth of scar tissue displaces normal hepatic cells, squeezing the vessels and increasing blood pressure. The liver, despite its ability to self-repair, refuses to work. The person is extinguished. Slow and painful.

Thanks to the first experience of the American surgeon T. Strazla, who risked borrowing an organ from a deceased person and sewn it to a dying patient, the world learned about the possibility of transplantation. But on the flow of such operations were put only a quarter of a century ago, when a drug was invented to protect the transplanted organ, allowing to reduce the aggression of the immune system of the donor.

The centers in which transplantation is performed exist now all over the world. Most of them are concentrated in America. Liver transplantation in Russia is possible at the Institute of Transplantology, the Sklifosovsky Institute, in the Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. But in the latter they only deal with related transplants.

How much does a liver transplant cost? Prices for the same type of operation in different countries are significantly different. The most affordable transactions are those in Turkey (from 77,000 to 100,000 euros), Israel (from 150,000 to 200,000 euros), Germany (from 200,000 to 300,000). In Russia, you can conduct a budget operation (free of charge), but you will need a preliminary record and a long wait.

The liver chosen for transplantation can be either a stranger (taken from a deceased person or from a living donor) or a related one.

The first liver related transplant was made by Christophe Brolich, a surgeon from Chicago. Practice was adopted by other surgeons. Especially relevant is a similar transplant in Japan and the Middle East, where the transplantation of organs of the deceased person is religion.

In Russia, posthumous donorship has rather weak economic and legislative support, and public opinion is for some reason disapproved. Therefore, a related transplant is still preferable here. Another thing is positive - with such a transplant the organism receives less stress, the organ gets better, rejections are much less frequent.

Otdat Part of his liver can only blood relatives who have reached the age of eighteen. The main condition - the compatibility of blood groups and good health. The transplant can be performed as a child (½ of the share of the right liver), and the adult (the whole proportion).

According to statistics, the successful outcome of the operation conducted at the RSCC is close to 98%, while foreign practice has stopped by 85% so far.

Indications for such an operation - liver disease, threatening to turn into cirrhosis. There are contraindications: tuberculosis, hepatitis (active form), AIDS, syphilis. The operation will be simply meaningless, because the transplanted liver will be infected with bacteria circulating in the body. The same applies to the treatment of malignant tumors - in the presence of metastases the risk of their development after transplantation is too high.