Dr Gaurav Chaubal

The kidneys are organs whose function is essential to maintain life. Most people are born with two kidneys, located on either side of the spine, behind the abdominal organs and below the rib cage. The kidneys perform several major functions to keep the body healthy.Filtration of the blood to remove waste products from normal body functions, passing the waste from the body as urine, and returning water and chemicals back to the body as necessary.

What is multivisceral transplantation?Multivisceral transplantation having more than three abdominal organs replacement such as stomach, duodenum, pancreas, small intestine, and liver. The transplantation is based on patients need.The pancreas lies behind the lower part of the stomach. The main function of the pancreas is to create insulin. Insulin is a hormone responsible to regulate sugar (glucose) absorption into the body. If the pancreas is unable to create enough insulin, then sugar level increases to an unnatural level resulting in diabetes. A pancreas transplant is used to overcome this condition.Pancreas transplantation is for people who suffer from chronic diabetes and also have renal failure. It is aimed to ‘cure’ diabetes and in the long run, it will protect the transplanted kidney from being affected by diabetes and even reverse neuropathy and prolong their life. Small bowel transplantation is for people with bowel failure from either surgical cause or medical cause. Bowel failure means bowel is unable to absorb nutrients from food. Sometimes people need their nutrition to be fed through a drip into a vein as their bowel is unable to absorb nutrients from any food. This patient population, if not treated appropriately treated will develop liver and or kidney failure. They will need a combination of liver, small intestine and kidney transplantation (multi-visceral transplantation). We have a successful on-going cadaver organ transplantation program which will make these types of complex operations possible. Moreover, we have the doctors and the technology available to optimize their care in all the aspects.

All About Liver TransplantA few facts about liver transplantationOnly cure for advanced stages of cirrhosisCan be done by donation by a brain dead person or by a close relative with matching blood groupDone in time, it carries 80% success rateClose follow up is essential after transplantLife can be completely normal after transplantWho needs a Liver Transplant?The final phase entails the psychological and mental preparation of the patient. The patient and the family are counseled about the procedure, hospital stay, the likely course after surgery, follow up and aftercare.After evaluation, the patient is either placed on the waiting list for cadaveric donation, or , if there is a willing and blood group matched family donor available, he/she is evaluated for donation and a transplant is scheduled.While on the cadaver waiting list, the patient follows up with the Transplant Team until a suitable liver becomes available. If the patient's condition shows signs of deteriorating, we normally suggest the family to consider living liver donation.