NTU Hospital lauds 3 decades of pediatric liver transplant success

Taipei, June 13 (CNA) National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) on Friday lauded its 10-year survival rate of 75 percent for pediatric liver transplants performed over the past 30 years and highlighted two successful cases involving Indonesian children.

"All the anatomical structures [in children's livers] are very small," making pediatric liver transplants more challenging than adult ones, said Hu Rey-heng (胡瑞恒), an attending physician in NTUH's Department of Surgery, at a press conference at the hospital Friday.

Other factors such as limited abdominal space, a shortage of suitable donors, and the need for precise dosing -- as children have less capacity to tolerate excess medication -- also pose significant challenges to the success of pediatric liver transplants, he said.

Despite the complexities, NTUH has been performing pediatric liver transplants -- defined as transplants received by patients under the age of 18 -- since 1992, with around 200 cases completed to date, Hu said.

Of the 174 cases performed between January 1992 and December 2021, a five-year survival rate of 85 percent and a 10-year survival rate of 75 percent were recorded, with 83 percent of the patients originally suffering from cholestatic diseases, Hu said.

Cholestatic diseases are conditions in which the flow of bile from the liver is reduced or blocked, with examples including biliary atresia, a blockage in the ducts that can lead to liver damage or death if left untreated.

Among those who have survived after the transplants at NTUH are 11-year-old Sherlyn Aurelia and 10-year-old David Kenrich Huang, both from Indonesia and born with biliary atresia.

"Sherlyn's condition was more critical when she first arrived, so she spent some time in the intensive care unit before the transplant," Hu said.

He recalled that the girl had previously undergone an unsuccessful Kasai operation -- aimed at re-establishing bile flow from the liver into the intestine -- in Malaysia to treat biliary atresia before being referred to NTUH in August 2014.

After a 10-hour surgery at NTUH in September 2014, Sherlyn, who was then 1 year old, successfully received part of a liver from her mother.

Follow-up evaluations, including checkups at NTUH every six months, have shown that she has recovered well, according to the hospital.

After learning about Sherlyn's case, David's father contacted NTUH seeking treatment for his son, who also had biliary atresia.

The hospital agreed and gave the son part of his father's liver in a living-donor transplant at the hospital in 2016, when he was just 1 year old, the hospital said.

Now both in good health, the two patients and their families expressed gratitude at Friday's press conference to the NTUH medical team for their years of care.

Lee Yi-hsuan (李怡萱), deputy executive officer of NTUH's International Medical Service Center, said the hospital has treated more than 2,000 international patients requiring hospitalization through referrals from overseas medical institutions.