Surgeons at the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Research Centre (PKLI) in Lahore have achieved a groundbreaking medical milestone by conducting Pakistan’s first ‘split-liver transplant’ and the country’s inaugural pancreatic transplant.
Annually, approximately 8,000 individuals in Pakistan find themselves in dire need of liver transplants due to either liver failure or liver cancer, as highlighted by medical experts.
Dr. Faisal Saud, Dean and Chief Executive Officer of PKLI&RC, disclosed that this medical breakthrough was made possible through the organ donation of a young man, Uzair Bin Yasin, who was declared brain dead at a hospital in Rawalpindi. Yasin had previously expressed his wish for all his vital organs, including his liver, pancreas, kidneys, and eyes, to be donated posthumously, a gesture that ultimately facilitated life-saving procedures for seven individuals across Rawalpindi and Lahore.
Dr. Saud explained, “By bifurcating the liver, we were able to transplant segments into two recipients: a 33-year-old adult and a young boy, both of whom were suffering from organ failure.”
Moreover, the transplantation of Yasin’s pancreas into a 32-year-old patient with Type-1 diabetes marked the nation’s first successful pancreatic transplant, opening new avenues for diabetes treatment in Pakistan.