Apollo shares achievements and plans for the Liver Transplant Program
Posted on: 25/May/2011 1:40:12 AM
Apollo centre for liver disease and transplantation has completed 100 liver transplantations in about 3 years with over 90% success rate, creating a milestone in the history of medicine. There is a noticeable rise in the cases of liver diseases in India which will result in a greater need for treatment in the coming future than the current availability. As a pioneer in the healthcare sector, Apollo Hospitals is fortifying the facilities throughout the country to meet and battle the need.
Addressing the media Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Apollo is the only healthcare unit in India to establish a world class facility for a comprehensive liver transplantation program. We offer the patients an entire spectrum of treatment procedures for liver failure added with our trademark T.L.C. We also try to provide them a compound financial package which I believe helps in planning expenses & will make it accessible to more patients. Understanding that liver treatment is still an expensive cure in India, we are also working with leading financial institutions for easy arrangement of finances for the patients and their next of kin.”
He further added, “Apollo Chennai has the largest cadaver transplant program in the country. This is again a benchmark in the Indian healthcare scenario where every other program consists of mainly living donor transplants only which have limitations in the absence of a robust cadaver organ backup.
Elaborating on the Liver Transplant Program, Dr. Anand Khakhar, Senior Consultant Liver Transplant & Hepatobiliary Surgery and program Director for the Liver Transplant Program at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai said, “Liver transplantation is a surgical procedure whereby a diseased or failing liver is removed and replaced by a whole liver from a deceased donor, or part of a liver from a healthy living donor”. Ours program has an ideal balance of both living donor & cadaver donor liver transplantation that provides an additional safety net for patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation at our centre thereby further improving outcomes.” Additionally we have a dedicated team and centre for pediatric liver transplantation.
He also added “The 100 surgeries benchmark has been crossed by the Chennai department much faster than the other programs in the country. The goal of the program is to not only raise awareness about the importance of a healthy liver and the dangers of liver diseases, but also to provide access to treatment geographically and financially.”
