City hospital performs domino transplant

A surgical team in a city hospital has claimed to have successfully performed a 'Domino Transplant' using a liver with a rare genetic disorder called Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (FAP).
The procedure is technically more complicated but allows the hospital to expand the number of patients who can benefit from this lifesaving surgery, Dr Nalla G Palanisamy, Chairman of Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, claimed at a press conference today.
The first transplant recipient, 36 year old male was suffering from chronic leg pain, had approached KMCH, where the doctors suspected a rare condition of FAP, which was later confirmed by a nerve biopsy and genetic study testing at Royal Free Hospital, London, he said.

FAP is a genetic disorder that causes a protein called Amyloid to get deposited in nerves, kidneys and heart to cause multi organ failure and is a hereditary disorder which runs in families.
The second patient, was a 50-yer-old man and was diagnosed with decompensated cryptogenic cirrhosis for which liver transplantation was the only solution for both patients.
With two transplant teams performing simultaneous surgeries, the patient with FAP, received a new liver from a brain dead donor.
Then the FAP affected man's liver was transplanted or Dominoed into the second patient.
Even though the second patient had received a liver with a genetic disorder, typically the condition will not impact his health for at least for another 15-20 years, Vivekanandan claimed.