Chennai, Jul 3 : For the first time in South Asia, a two-year-old girl frm Oman underwent a paediatric auxiliary liver transplant at the Global Hospitals and Health City at suburban Perumbakkam.

Talking to reporters here today, eminent Liver Transplant specialist Dr Mohammed Rela said the girl, Yasmin, was affected by Hepatitis A. She developed hepatic coma and was being fast tracked by fate into a rapidly looming liver failure. Her condition deteriorated in the form of an increasing jaundice, coagulopathy, seizures, difficulty in ventilation, decreased urine output and coma.

The doctors at Oman referred her to Dr Naresh Shanmugam, Child liver specialist at Global Health City. Baby Yasmin was airlifted from Oman in April in a highly critical condition with brain swelling, blood coagulopathy, very high jaundice, secondary to liver failure. The liver transplant team found that that auxiliary liver transplant was the best option and the 10-hour complex surgery was performed by Prof Mohamed Rela his team.

The procedure involved removal of a portion of Yasmin's liver and replaced it with a small portion of her uncle's liver. Prof Rela said "post-operative course was stormy due to the toxins released from the remaining portion of her liver, which was effectively managed by expert paediatric liver intensive care team headed by Dr Naresh Shanmugam. Within next four days her liver function was normal.

Two months after surgery, she is kept alive by the donor liver, but her own liver has also started functioning and in the next six months her own liver would become fully functional", he said. Dr Rela said auxiliary liver transplantation was a very innovative and technically demanding surgical technique where only a portion of patient's liver is removed and replaced with a portion of donor's liver. Prof Mohamed Rela, who pioneered this technique at Kings College hospital, London, was performed this for the first time on a child in India.

- Agencies