Odisha’s SCB Medical College & Hospital Begins Liver Transplant Process

Cuttack: In a significant development, the highly complicated liver transplant process has commenced at the SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCB MCH) in Odisha’s Cuttack city on Wednesday.

As per information, the advance treatment procedure has started at a specially designed modular operation theatre at the trauma building on the hospital premises.

According to hospital sources, registration of at least three persons have already been completed for the transplant. Liver of a woman will be transplanted in her husband at the special operation theatre of the hospital on Wednesday.

The highly complex surgical procedure will take around 12 to 13 hours.

An MOU has been signed between Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG), Hyderabad and SCB MCH for the liver transplantation process. A joint team of doctors from AIG and SCB will carry out the process.

It may be noted here that the state government had announced plans to start liver transplant unit at SCB MCH way back in 2013. It was announced a year after a kidney transplant unit started functioning in the hospital. A sum of Rs 22 crore was sanctioned for setting up the unit.

The liver transplant OPD in the super speciality block of the hospital was inaugurated in October, 2021. As many as 16 patients had registered their names with the OPD on first day. The OPD was later shifted to hepatology department in 2022. However, the commencement of the liver transplant facility got delayed as the gastro intestinal surgery and hepatology departments were functioning without professors.

This apart, majority of the doctors, nurses and paramedical staffs who had undergone training twice for liver transplant surgery were also retired, sources said.