In March, SAHZU transplantation team traveled 4000 km and demonstrated SAHZU surgical techniques in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.

From March 11 to 15, Prof. WANG Weilin, President of the Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU), and a SAHZU multidisciplinary team paid a visit to Uzbekistan for a five-day surgical operation demonstrations and academic exchange activities at the Republic Specialized Scientific-Practical Medical Center of Surgery Named After Academician V.Vakhidov (RSSPMCS). During their stay in Uzbekistan, the team successfully completed the country's first pediatric living donor liver transplant, the first left lobe living donor liver transplantation in adults, and the first living donor kidney transplant with retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephrectomy.

12-year-old Natasha (pseudonym) was the first patient for SAHZU liver transplantalogists. For Natasha who was diagnosed with Wilson's Disease, liver transplant was her only hope, but such surgery in pediatric patients has not been carried out yet in Uzbekistan.

Since having heard about this case, SAHZU President Prof. WANG Weilin was confident: “Our team has abundant experience in living donor pediatric liver transplant and is capable of performing the surgery for this little girl.” He also added that to ensure surgery success and patient safety SAHZU sent a multidisciplinary team comprising of transplant surgeon, intensive care doctor, pediatrician, ultrasound doctor and anesthesiologist to Uzbekistan.

In the morning of March 12, Prof. WANG Weilin and the team started with hepatectomy on the donor, Natasha’s grandmother. Her left lateral lobe of liver was carefully removed and implanted in Natasha with meticulous anastomosis. After 6.5 hours, the transplant was successfully completed.

First day after surgery, Natasha was removed from the ventilator and recovering steadily.

In addition, SAHZU team also completed a left lobe living donor liver transplantation in adults, also the first case in Uzbekistan. Patient Aziza (pseudonym) has been suffering from liver cirrhosis and liver failure due to Hepatitis B, and was in urgent need of a liver transplant to save her life. Compared to the right lobe living donor liver transplant, left lobe living donor liver transplant is more difficult because of its thinner hepatic artery and portal vein. However, the left lobe is smaller in size and more conducive to the recovery of the donor, so we decided to perform the surgery from this approach. Executive Vice Chair of SAHZU HPB Surgery Prof. YAN Sheng explained.

On March 13, surgery was successfully completed in 7 hours. Aziza started her new life with the left lobe liver donated to her by her sister.

Chair of SAHZU Urology Prof. CAI Ming and his kidney transplant team successfully completed two kidney transplants too, one of which is the first living donor kidney transplant with retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephrectomy in Uzbekistan. Prof. CAI commented after the surgery: The donor kidney had multiple arteries, one of which was only 2 millimeters in diameter and needed to be preserved intact and anastomosed for patency. Patient Abdullah who suffered from uremia recovered well after the operation and the donor was able to get out of bed the next day and removed from drainage tube.

The surgical operation demonstrations were an important part of collaborations between SAHZU and RSSPMCS aimed at academic exchange and doctor training, and eventually bridging Chinese and Uzbekistan medical professionals. The MOU signing ceremony was also held in RSSPMCS in the morning of March 11 where Mr. WANG Jiwei, Charge d'affaires Ad Interim of Embassy of China in Uzbekistan, and Mr. Sidikov Abdunomon Ergashevich, high official of Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan, presented in the ceremony along with other distinguished guests from SAHZU and RSSPMCS.

Source: The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine