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RP should consider donor liver transplants — expert

12/24/2005

A Singapore-based medical expert who performed the first living donor liver transplant (LDLT) in the United Kingdom said Philippine doctors should be more open to such procedures here to save the lives of patients, especially those with end-stage liver diseases such as cancer and cirrhosis.

“Our Asian culture makes it difficult to find cadaveric donors for transplantation. Most of the times, patients who need immediate transplants wait in vain because there are no available organs,” Dr. Tan Kai Chah, a consultant surgeon at the Asian Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation (ACLDT) at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore said.

“Certainly, the demand is there. But because of the low cadaveric donor rate not only in Asia but also in the US and the rest of the world, we must seriously consider living donor liver transplant,” Dr. Tan told a medical convention in Cebu City recently.

Dr. Tan said new technologies and advances in medicine now allow experts to pursue living donor liver transplant as a practical alternative to save patients’ lives.

The first living donor liver transplant was performed in Denver, Colorado in 1963. Dr. Tan, meanwhile, performed the first LDLT in the United Kingdom as well as in Southeast Asia. The procedure has yet to be performed in the Philippines, where most liver patients have to go to the United States for treatment.

Dr. Tan’s visit to the Philippines was made possible by Singapore’s Parkway Group Healthcare which runs the ACLDT at Gleneagles where patients with liver disease from the regional countries can conveniently and cost-effectively seek quality and advanced treatment in Singapore.

A Parkway Healthcare Medical Referral Center was also recently opened at the Medical Plaza Makati where Filipinos with liver ailments and other major medical problems can seek free consultations on medical services and arrangements for possible treatment in Singapore. (Inquiries are entertained at tels. 751-8225 and 27.)

Dr. Tan said he performs most of the LDLT procedures at Gleneagles Hospital, one of the three acute-care tertiary hospitals in Singapore owned by the Parkway Group Healthcare, the largest private healthcare group in Asia. The Parkway Group owns two other elite hospitals in Singapore - the East Shore and Mount Elizabeth Hospitals.

The high medical standards, comprehensive healthcare facilities, state-of-the-art technologies coupled with the accumulated experience of the ACLDT team at Gleneagles in managing all types of liver diseases endemic within the Asian region provide immense benefits toward high quality patient care and better treatment outcomes.