Children's Hospital 2 officially resumes liver transplants

A representative of Children's Hospital 2 said that on June 26, the hospital will perform a liver transplant for an 11-year-old boy from Binh Dinh who has biliary atresia.

This child had Kassai surgery (a surgical method to temporarily drain bile from the liver for children with congenital biliary atresia) at 1 month old. In this case, the organ donor was the mother. Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital will coordinate the liver retrieval from the donor.

Previously, from October 2022 to present, Children's Hospital 2 has interrupted liver transplant work. According to the hospital's leadership, there are many reasons leading to the above situation. Firstly, the hospital's doctors have difficulty with professional certificates related to adult organ transplants. Secondly, the old operating room has limited infrastructure, the number of operating rooms is small, and human resources are lacking, but must ensure many specialties: open heart surgery, neurosurgery, organ transplant... Thirdly, there is a lack of organ sources for transplant, currently the source of organs for transplants for children is very limited.

Faced with this situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health also held a meeting to find a solution to the recent delay in liver transplants for children. Specifically, with the spirit of close coordination and mutual support between hospitals under the Ministry of Health in the city and city hospitals, Children's Hospital 2 continues to perform organ transplant procedures with the support of organ transplant specialists from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and Cho Ray Hospital.

According to statistics, the number of liver transplants at Children's Hospital 2 from 2005 to 2019 was 13 cases, and from 2020 to present, there were 12 cases.