20-Hour Surgery at Pune Hospital Saves Two Lives with Swap Liver Transplant

Pune, 4th May 2023: In a rare feat, Sahyadri Hospitals’ Transplant Team successfully performed Pune’s first swap liver transplant. These surgeries were recently performed at Sahyadri Superspeciality Hospital Deccan Gymkhana. Two individuals who were both suffering from liver cirrhosis (a condition characterized by chronic liver damage) underwent life-saving liver transplants simultaneously. The lead surgeon for this swap liver transplant was Dr Bipin Vibhute, who is also the head of Liver and Multi-organ Transplant department at Sahyadri Hospitals, Pune.

Although each donor was related to one of the recipients, their livers were not compatible, so Dr Bipin Vibhute decided to perform a two-way transplant which both families agreed to. The heart-warming story of this swap involves Ajit (Name changed), a teacher from Buldhana, Maharashtra, and Amar (Name changed), a business owner from Ahmednagar District, who shared similar destinies. During the surgery, Swara (Name changed), the wife of Amar donated her liver to Ajit and Geeta (Name changed) the wife of Ajit donated her liver to Amar.

This gruelling 20-hour surgery marked a milestone as the city’s first successful two-way liver transplant swap.

Dr. Bipin Vibhute, Head of Liver and Multi-organ Transplant Department at Sahyadri Hospitals, said, “Swap transplants have taken place in prominent cities like Mumbai and Delhi before, but the recent one in Pune was a first of its kind. Such exchanges prove to be life-saving for recipients whose relatives are medically fit but cannot donate due to mismatched blood group or liver size. The two transplants were carried out concurrently by performing surgeries on two donors and two recipients. A medical team comprising of 25 members, including 11 doctors and other staff, collaborated in four operating rooms for more than 20 hours to accomplish this Herculean task.”

He emphasized the significant role that patient counselling plays prior to such procedures. The major challenge witnessed was performing all four surgeries simultaneously in four operating rooms – right from administering anaesthesia to completing the transplant.

With the success of recent swap liver transplant, the doctors at Sahyadri Hospitals are confident of saving more lives in future.

The transplant team consisted of Hepatobiliary and Liver Transplant Surgeons – Dr Bipin Vibhute, Dr Aniruddha Bhosale, Dr Abhijit Mane, Dr Vikas Chaudhary, Dr Sharan Narute, Dr Anurag Shrimal, Transplant Anaesthetist Dr Manish Pathak, Dr Manoj Raut transplant coordinators Rahul Tambe, Arun Ashokan and Aman Bele and Medical Social Worker Sharmila Padhye and Ajinkya Borate.