Renji hospital sets record for youngest liver transplant
Doctors in surgery
Doctors at Shanghai's Renji Hospital have successfully conducted a liver transplant on a 58-day-old girl – the youngest patient in the country to undergo such a procedure.
They used part of her 22-year-old mother's liver for the transplant, the first for any child under two months, and the girl is stable and recovering well, the hospital said on Tuesday.
The child's skin and eyes started to turn yellow when she was one month old and her condition deteriorated despite receiving treatment in her hometown.
Her parents took her to Dr Xia Qiang at Renji Hospital and checks found the girl had acute liver failure, needing liver transplant surgery immediately.
She weighed only 3 kilograms. Her condition quickly became critical.
Xia's team cooperated closely with experts from the Shanghai Children's Medical Center on multidisciplinary consultations with medics from various departments on pre-operation care and a surgery plan.
The surgery was conducted on June 25, when doctors removed 135 grams of her mother's liver and took seven hours to complete the operation, using a microscope to connect the tiny blood vessels.
The girl has been taken off the respirator and her liver function is normal, doctors say.
Renji has done more liver transplants than any other hospital in the country – and the most transplants for children in the world for nine straight years. Its survival rate is among the best in the world.
Its previous youngest transplant recipient was 80 days old.
