Pakistan’s first split liver, pancreas transplants completed at PKLI

LAHORE: In a remarkable feat, surgeons have successfully performed Pakistan’s first ‘split-liver transplant’ as well as the country’s first pancreatic transplant at the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Research Centre (PKLI) Lahore.

According to experts, around 8,000 patients need liver transplant surgeries due to liver failure or liver cancer annually in Pakistan.

Dean and Chief Executive Officer PKLI&RC Dr Faisal Saud said with the help of a liver donated by a young man, who was pronounced brain dead at a Rawalpindi hospital, the team performed Pakistan’s first split-liver transplant.

The donor, identified as Uzair Bin Yasin, had wished to donate all his vital organs including the liver, pancreas, both kidneys, as well as eyes after death, and they were used to save the lives of seven people in Rawalpindi and Lahore, the PKLI CEO said.

We divided the vital organs into two and transplanted them to a 33-year-old adult and a little boy, who were facing organ failure, the institute’s CEO said.

Similarly, the pancreas of the deceased, a 32-year-old man, was transplanted to a Type-1 diabetes patient, which was also the first pancreatic transplant in the history of Pakistan.