Prof. Dr. Hamdi Karakayalı, expert in liver transplant
Liver transplant is one of the most complicated interventions in surgery, and for many patients it is a chance for a new normal healthy life. **Turkiye is one of the countries from the top list with the best rates of success in liver transplant, and the Acıbadem clinics have a very good performance in this field. **
Prof. Hamdi Karakayalı, one of the top experts of Acıbadem Group, explains in detail the process regarding liver transplant and states:” The liver transplant from a living donor is the most difficult one because, in this case, there are, actually, two patients that we need to take care of. The donor needs to be in a good health condition, because doctors need to extract a part of the liver, and the reconstruction of vessels and bile ducts is a very hard job. I think this type of operation is one of the most difficult of all. However, the doctors in Turkiye who are performing it are very good at their job. Since we don’t have many people who donate their organs after death, most trans-plants are done with donations from a living donor. As a matter of fact, 80% of liver transplants are performed with donation from a living donor, and in case of kidney transplant, the percentage increases to even 85%. If we were to make a world top list, Turkiye is #1 country for living donor kidney transplantations, and second in liver transplant cases after South Korea.”
Strengths of Turkiye and Acıbadem clinics concerning liver transplantation are that in Turkiye this type of intervention is very frequent – there are around 1400 liver transplants per year and 3500 kidney transplants, and because lack of organ donations, 80-85% of transplan-tations involve a living donor. These figures prove huge experience in this type of operations. Moreover, transplants are very well regulated in Turkiye by the Ministry of Health. The trans-plantation centers are regularly assessed, and the success rate should be more than 85%. If these parameters are not observed, the center is closed. In other countries such as China or India there are no strict rules, so that nobody knows what the actual success rate of the trans-plantations is. In Turkiye the success rate of every center is public.
“The donor’s liver recovers in 3 months. So first 3 months are very important for donors. But they can return to their normal life after this period. On the other hand, transplant patients need to be monitorized closely for the first year. They will be hospitalized for 2-3 weeks and remain to stay in the country for 2 weeks after discharge. We continue monitoring the patient for the first year. We perform these transplants to offer patients the possibility of having their healthy life back and we are happy to see them feeling well. They can exercise and work, which are the ingredients of a normal life.” – states Prof. Hamdi Karakayalı and adds that in Acıbadem Clinic they also have many complex cases. Many patients reach them have either no hope or are in serious condition and have gone through a long period of sickness. ACIB-ADEM doctors actually save their lives; everything changes after the transplant.
Last year, 125 liver and 320 kidney transplants were performed in Acıbadem clinics. These op-erations are part of their normal professional life. The most demanding part is the pediatric transplants as there are a lot of emotions, it is a difficult situation for the parents who see their little ones suffer. All they want is to see their children get better. It is important to talk to them, explain the situation. Transplantation is a complicated and long lasting process which does not end when patient is “closed”.
