KARACHI – Surgeons in Karachi performed Pakistan’s first ever liver auto-transplantation procedure at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), marking a major medical development.
Eminent liver transplant surgeon Prof Dr Faisal Dar led the procedure along with his team, comprising Dr Jahanzeb Hyder, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, and others, to treat a 28-year-old cancer patient.
Cancer had damaged some portion of the liver and some important veins of the patient, who hails from Zhob town of Balochistan.
Officials said that the tumor was surgically removed and damaged veins were restored after taking live out of the body, adding that the organ was successfully re-implanted.
The DUHS said that the patient is recovering.
Vice-Chancellor, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Prof Saeed Quraishy said on Saturday that only around 20 such procedures have been carried out in the entire world, Geo News reported.
Dr Jahanzeb Hyder said Pakistan annually needs hundreds of liver transplants because of liver cancers, and damage due to hepatitis B and C.
Urging people to donate parts of their livers, he said that it is the only organ in the body that can regenerate itself.
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