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For complete, latest, authentic,
up-to-date and simplified information related to all aspects
of Liver Transplant in India, Do Visit Patron Website:
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What are
various Liver Diseases ? |
Who can be a Donor?
What
happens with the Donor? |
Success of (Pediatric) Liver
Transplant in Kids / Children? |
What
other Therapies are available? |
Hepatitis-B and Expense involved? |
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Which
Patient should Wait for Cadaver? |
What is Liver
Transplant? |
Do I REALLY Need
Liver Transplant? |
What is the Cost
of Liver Transplant? |
How to
prepare yourself for post-transplant life?
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Who can
be a Cadaver Donor? Is there any Risk Involved in
Cadaver Donation? |
What is The
Guarantee of My Life after Liver Transplant? |
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What is the
Cumulative Cost of Liver Transplant? |
Liver
Transplant medicines like Pangraf, Prograf, Cell
Cept, My Cept, Hep B, El Hep, Hepa Big, Human
Albumin Injection and their possible side effects?
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What is
Living Donor Organ Donation? |
Best Liver
Transplant Facility and Surgeons in India. |
Is the Liver
Transplant Last Option for me? |
Where to get
Extremely Costly Medicines at Minimum Possible Rate? |
How can
you arrange the expenses? |
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What is
Cadaver Donation? |
What are
types of Liver Transplant |
Where to
apply for Cadaveric Organ? |
What are
Dark
and
Bright
Sides of Liver Transplant? |
????
100s of Other Questions ???? |
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There are Hundreds of Questions
in the Minds of Liver Disease Patients and their
Family Members. Get
Answers to all such Questions and Best Guidance
Regarding Liver Transplant at Patron Website:
www.indialivertransplant.com
An Informed decision about
Liver Transplant is necessary for Best Results and
for Removing Unnecessary Costs.
Consult
regarding Liver, Liver Disease, Pre-Transplant
Preparation, Peri or Post Transplant Care or any
queries related to this field. To get the best result out
of this life-saving procedure of Liver Transplant,
it is advisable to LOOK before you LEAP.
A sincere Consultation and Patient Education
Session related to Liver Diseases and Liver
Transplantation can Solve 100s of Problems & 1000s
of Queries , which will ultimately Save Lacs of your
Hard-earned money.
Send your
following reports for an expert opinion:
CBC, LFT, PT(INR),
S.Creatinine, USG/CT Scan Abdomen
India Liver
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Liver
Transplantation
Liver
Transplantation is widely accepted as an effective
therapeutic modality for a variety of irreversible acute and
chronic liver diseases for which no satisfactory therapy is
available. Following the first unsuccessful efforts at human
liver transplantation in 1963, development of the procedure
evolved at first slowly and steadily for 20 years and then
rapidly over the past tow decades. The growth of liver
transplantation was facilitated by the conclusion of
National Institute of Health Consensus Development
Conference in 1983 that liver transplantation is not an
experimental procedure but an effective therapy that
deserves broader application.
The phenomenon of
Liver Transplant is based on the property of liver
regeneration. In Liver Transplant operation the damaged
liver of patient is replaced by the part of liver of liver
donor or by the liver of the cadaver donor (a brain dead
person). Liver donor is the healthy individual who donates
part of his liver. The remaining liver regenerates it self.
Liver transplantation is the replacement
of a diseased liver with a healthy liver allograft. Liver
transplantation nowadays is a well accepted treatment option
for end-stage liver disease and acute liver failure.
General Procedure
Patient comes to Consultant Liver
Transplant Surgeon for Liver Transplant Evaluation which
involves blood tests, evaluation by hepatologist, chest
consultant, cardiologist, psychiatrist, dentist,
gynaecologist (in case of female patients) and anaesthetist.
This evaluation tells the current status
of the liver disease and duration of time in which liver
transplant should take place.
After evaluation, patient is asked to
arrange a liver donor or he is put on the cadaver transplant
list.
If liver donor is arranged then he/she
has to undergo Donor Evaluation which involves blood tests,
evaluation by hepatologist, chest consultant, cardiologist,
psychiatrist, dentist, gynaecologist (in case of female
donors) and anaesthetist.
If the donor is proved fit after the
evaluation then the date of transplant is decided. Patient
is usually admitted two days prior to surgery and donor is
admitted a day before liver transplant.
Care to be taken before Surgery
Try to lead an active life. This may be
difficult because of the tiredness and weakness but it is
worth persevering.
If your legs are swollen, it may be helpful to raise them
while you are resting.
Food
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Avoid alcohol intake.
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Eat a well-balanced, high-protein
diet (only in consultation with your doctor).
-
Avoid adding salt to meals. Salt may
be used in small amounts in cooking.
-
Avoid fried and oily food
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In the later stages, the restricted
amount of liquids should be taken (on the advice of your
doctor).
Vitamin and mineral supplements may be necessary.
Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is irreversible scarring of
the liver that involves the formation of fibrous (scar)
tissue associated with the destruction of the normal
architecture of the liver. It is caused by chronic liver
disease (generally called CLD). It is the result of
long-standing injury most commonly due to
alcohol in excess but there are a number of other
important causes. The destruction of the normal architecture
and the loss of liver cells prevents the liver from
functioning normally. It plays an important part in
digestion of food but it also has a major role in
metabolising drugs and making proteins, including those that
help the blood to clot.
Cirrhosis is a serious condition. Only 30 per cent of
patients with this problem will survive five years after
diagnosis and the outlook is worse if the cause is alcohol
and the patient continues to drink.
Liver Transplant is the
only cure of this condition depending on the other health
factors the patient.
Common causes of Cirrhosis
Chronic Liver
Disease due to the following care the main causes of liver
cirrhosis:
-
Alcohol excess:
the rate of cirrhosis in a country is directly related
to the average alcohol consumption in that country. Half
of all cases of cirrhosis are due to alcohol excess.
-
Chronic viral hepatitis:
the two important viruses are
hepatitis B and
hepatitis C.
Hepatitis A (infectious hepatitis) does not
cause cirrhosis.
-
Primary biliary cirrhosis:
this is an uncommon disease mainly affecting women. It
is not due to alcohol. For some reason the body mounts
an attack on the liver in patients with primary biliary
cirrhosis.
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Autoimmune chronic active
hepatitis: another
uncommon condition that results in the body's immune
system attacking and destroying liver cells.
-
Drugs and chemicals:
a number of drugs and chemicals can cause liver damage
but few cause cirrhosis. Certain specialised drugs need
monitoring for their effect on the liver.
-
Metabolic and inherited disorders:
These are a number of uncommon conditions that allow the
accumulation of toxins in the liver. The commonest is
haemochromatosis causes excess deposits of iron in the
liver.
Symptoms
of Liver Cirrhosis
The symptoms will depend on how much
damage has occurred to the liver.
In the early stages there may be no symptoms at all and the
disease may be discovered as a result of an investigation
for another illness.
As the disease progresses,
tiredness, weakness, lack of energy, loss of
appetite, nausea and weight loss may develop.
In the later stages the liver is struggling to perform all
its functions and any or all of the following symptoms may
be present.
-
Jaundice:
this is the yellowing of the skin (jaundice)
and the eyes due to the failure of the liver to remove a
substance called bilirubin from the blood.
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Nail changes:
the shape and appearance of the nails may change. They
may be more curved (clubbing) and they may be white
rather than pink.
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Skin changes:
most of patients will have darkening of the skin.
Itching is also a common symptom.
-
Fluid retention:
this is common at some stage in cirrhosis. An important
function of the liver is to rid the body of excess fluid
through the kidneys and when it fails, fluid gathers in
the legs (oedema) or in the abdomen (ascites).
-
Abnormal blood vessels:
the commonest abnormality is a spider naevus, which is a
spot surrounded by fine blood vessels. A red face is
also common.
-
Easy bruising:
nosebleeds and easy bruising occur as a
result of abnormal blood vessels and delayed clotting
because the liver does not make enough clotting proteins
which results in delayed prothrombin time and lack of
platelets (common clotting factor)
-
Enlargement of breasts in men:
the liver destroys the female sex hormones and in
cirrhosis these accumulate and cause enlargement of the
breasts and shrinking of the testes in men.
In the very late
stages of the chronic liver disease, serious complications
may occur. These include vomiting of blood, either from
ulcers in the stomach or from leaking
varicose veins in the lower end of the oesophagus
(gullet). This is serious and requires hospital treatment.
The liver is responsible for removing poisonous substances
from the blood. In cirrhosis, the blood may bypass the liver
and these poisonous substances (mainly ammonia) pass to the
brain where they may result in alteration in brain function
(sensorium), causing confusion, drowsiness and finally coma.
This is called hepatic encephalopathy. This is also serious
and requires hospital treatment.
Liver
Cancer
There are two ways
in which cancer can involve the liver. The cancer can arise
from the liver itself (primary liver cancer in which
regeneration related tumorogenesis cause hepato cellular
carcinoma (HCC)) or it can spread to the liver from a
primary tumour at another site (secondary, or metastatic,
cancer).
Primary liver cancer can arise from the liver cells
themselves (hepatocellular carcinoma) or from the system of
tubes that drains the bile from the liver (cholangiocarcinoma,
gall bladder cancer).
Liver Transplant
can be explored as a
successful option for treating HCC if it is not involving
portal vein or main hepatic vein.
Most patients with primary liver cancer have suffered
previously from liver disease such as chronic Hepatitis (due
to hepatitis B or C), cirrhosis or, in the less developed
world, been exposed to poisons from plants (aflatoxins).
Immunisation against
hepatitis B might, prevent many cases of primary
liver cancer.
Secondary (metastatic) cancer reaches the liver by spreading
through the blood system from a primary tumour at a separate
site. In about 50 per cent of patients with metastatic liver
cancer, the primary tumour is in the abdomen (colon, rectum
or stomach). The other common primary sites are the breasts
and lungs.
Symptoms of Liver
Cancer
The symptoms of cancer involving the
liver can include:
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tiredness.
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loss of appetite.
-
nausea.
-
heaviness felt up under the lower
ribs on the right hand side of the body.
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pain in the upper part of the belly.
In the later stages, the skin can develop a yellowish tinge
together with fevers and drenching sweats, particularly at
night.
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