Hanoi (VNA) - ওDoctors of the National Children's Hospital and the 108 Central Military Hospital have successfully performed a liver transplant on an 18-month-old girl suffering from malignant hepatoblastoma.

The baby hailing from Hanoi was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a very rare malignant tumor, in her 11th month after birth. Her cancer was already at the terminal stage upon detection, according to Dr. Nguyen Pham Anh Hoa, head of the Hepatology Department, and Dr. Bui Ngoc Lan, head of the Oncology Department at the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital. At that time, the tumor grew so large and occupied most of the child’s liver that removing it was impossible, as there would be too little healthy liver left. Despite her undergoing six courses of chemotherapy and embolisation, the patient’s tumor was still growing rapidly, posing a high risk of metastasis. Treatment applied by doctors were not optimal in the hope of controlling the tumor growth and increasing the volume of the remaining healthy liver parts so that the tumor can be removed. The volume of the liver tumor remained unchanged while its malignancy increased day by day, threatening the patient’s life with high possibilities of adverse complications. After consultations between the two hospitals on May 24, Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Minh Dien, Director of the National Children's Hospital decided to conduct a liver transplant to save the girl. The donor is her mother, a 41-year-old woman. In order to minimize the immune adverse reactions caused by blood type incompatibility, hepatologists not only used pre-transplant medical therapies but also prepared prevention options for post-transplant rejection reactions. Dr. Le Van Thanh, head of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at the 108 Central Military Hospital said that despite the complexity of the surgery, experienced doctors from the two hospitals managed to perform it successfully on May 29. The girl recovered two weeks later and was discharged from the hospital. Earlier, on January 21, the 108 Central Military Hospital signed an agreement on liver transplant training and technology transfer with the National Children's Hospital. The operation took place only several months after the agreement. This is the first successful liver transplant for a child suffering from liver cancer in Vietnam, opening up hopes for children suffering from the disease. Throughout 2020, Vietnamese doctors conducted a series of special transplants, including two bowel transplants from live donors, considered one of the most difficult organ transplantation techniques. A record number of 23 organs – three hearts, four livers, and 16 kidneys - were transplanted within 13 days at the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital, while five liver transplants were operated in one week by doctors of the 108 Central Military Hospital. The first kidney transplant in Vietnam was conducted on June 4, 1992 at the 103 Military Hospital in Hanoi. The recipient was Vu Manh Doan, 40, and the donor was his 28-year-old younger brother. It was a notable milestone in the history of the country’s health sector. Vietnam now has 19 organ transplantation centers and achieves great progress in both tissue and organ transplantation techniques. In 2019, for the first time in Vietnam, doctors from the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital have been successful in performing a split liver transplant, dividing a donor’s liver and transplanting it into one adult and one child patient. The biggest difficulty of liver transplantation is the scarcity of organ resources, making the number of liver transplant only meets about 10-15 percent of demand. The success of organ transplantation opens up treatment possibilities for patients with end-stage impaired organs, brings hope and great opportunities to overcome serious diseases and improve quality of life for patients./.