Chinanews, Changsha, April 14 – From now on, liver disease patients no longer have to worry about liver donating-shortage problem: they can help themselves with their own livers. On Thursday, the Xiang Yasan Hospital affiliated to the Zhongnan University announced that Professor Ye Qifa in their hospital had accomplished four liver transplanting operations with the patients’ own livers after the diseased part had been cut off. The medical method has reached world advanced level, declared the hospital.

 

For a long time, many terminal liver cancer patients have had to rely on somebody else’s liver to solve their problem. Usually, doctors cuts off the entire liver of the patient and transplants the liver of another patient who is brain dead.

 

For autotransplantation, the doctors first cut off the diseased part of the liver and move the rest part back into the patient’s body after they had fixed it. Since 1988, doctors in Germany, US, and Italy also have carried out similar researches on autotransplantation. However, the survival rate has not been high, Professor Ye said.

 

In recent years, Professor Ye and his research team had done numerous animal tests before they applied the technology to clinic trials. On April 29, 2005, Professor Ye and his research team performed the first autotransplantation surgery. The patient, a farmer in his 30s, had taken a liver resection surgery in 2000. Later, he suffered from liver cancer again and had to stay in hospital. After the autotransplantation surgery, the patient recovered from his disease. Now, he no longer relies on medical treatment. He even goes to work in the fields as normal people do. The other three patients who took similar surgeries have also recovered now.

 

In order to save more patients, Professor Ye now wants to give lectures to doctors and nurses from various parts of the country. He has already filed an application for related organizational work to the Ministry of Health.