The Royal Hospital (RH), for the first time in the Sultanate, has successfully performed Liver transplantation for an Omani woman with cancerous liver tumors. H.E. Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Health visited today Tuesday the patient who underwent the first liver transplantation which was operated by a team led by Prof Mohamed Rela, who is one of the world's top liver transplant surgeons, with the assistance of the RH medical and nursing staff.

The Health minister applauded this outstanding achievement that was accomplished in collaboration with one of Indian hospital as a strategic plan to introduce the Liver Transplantation surgeries in the Sultanate’s health institutions.  H.E. Dr. Al Saidi has further encouraged individuals to register in the National Organ Donation Program on order to facilitate the performance such life-saving operations

Commenting on this medical achievement, Dr. Qasim Al Salmi, RH Director stated that it is the result of two-year liver transplantation training program for the RH cadre in one of world’s most comprehensive liver-disease management center. Al Qasmi added that the provision of the latest equipment and medical devices utilized in this field was a key in the success of the surgery. He pointed out that the success of liver transplantation surgery for the patient promote forward the expansion and development of this therapeutic services in the hospital to include the launching of Pediatric liver transplantation next year.

The Living Donor Liver Transplantation involved two phases; pre- operation and the liver transplantation operation itself. Before performing the operation, the donor should undertake several examinations to assess the fitness. The aim of the tests are to confirm that the donor and patient are blood group compatible, assess size of the donor liver and health, confirm that the donor is free of any chronic and communicable diseases. The liver transplantation procedure represents in illustrating the donor’s liver delicately, and then extracting a portion of 60%-65% from the donor liver. Afterwards, a full extraction of the patient liver is made and finally the donated liver is connected to the blood vessels and cystic duct of the patient.  

Prof Mohamed Rela declared that they have transplanted a living donor liver transplantation on a woman with a liver disease as her young son donated the half of his liver. It was carried out with the combination of surgeons as well as the doctors, anesthetists, and intensivists.  The operation went successfully; both the recipient and the donor are doing extremely well.