A news report

Bangalore, May 26 There was an urgent need to educate people to popularize cadaveric organ donations which could help save lives of thousands people suffered from serious organ failures, noted surgical gastro entrologist Sanjay Govil said here today. The cadaveric organ donations or organ donation from the brain dead had not gained popularity due to misconceptions among the family members. Though it is next to impossible to revive the brain dead, their heart continue to beat for up to 24 hours and if the family members came forward to donate the organs, it could give lives to scores of people suffering from organ failures, mainly failing liver. "In fact despite the best efforts of organisations such as Forum for Organs Retrival and Transplant (FORTIS) and Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Committee (ZTCC), there have been no organ donors from Karnataka for the past four years," he said. Speaking to news-persons here Dr Govil said 'live donor' liver transplantation (LDLT), as opposed the cadaveric liver transplantation had been an acceptable option because of the shortfall of organs from deceased donors. LDLT, using organs donated by 'first degree relative' like wife, husband, father, mother and siblings, was possible due to increasing safety of liver surgery. The operative risk for living donors was only 0.2 to 0.5 per cent and blood transfusion was rarely required. A person could survive only with 25 per cent of normal functioning of liver so removal of 65 per cent was well tolerated by donors. The liver was the only organ in the body that regrows. Even if 65 per cent of the liver is donated by a person, it would grow back to full size within a few weeks. As well, the donated liver would also grow to full size in the body of the patient who gets the liver transplanted, he said. In first such case in Kanrataka, Dr Govil, who is a consultant at Narayana Hrudayalaya, successfully conducted a transplant surgery on a 32-year-old Dyaneswar Bhamare from Nasik by removing 65 per cent of liver from his wife Bhavana. The Doctor said Bhavana's post operative recovery was uneventful and she was discharged from hospital within ten days. Bhamare had been ill since 2004 when he began to suffer a gradual and progressive accumulation of fluid in his abdomen due to a failing liver. At the time of transplantation he had 20 litres of fluid in his belly. Recently he had also developed jaundice and other complications, he said. The cause of illness was cirrhosis of the liver secondary caused by a blockage of hepatic veins draining his liver. While it costs up to Rs one crore in the United States, Narayana Hrudayala had done the operation for less than ten per cent of that amount, Dr Govil added.