The UMP said that the facility had just had a working session with the National Center for Child Health and Development in Japan’s Tokyo to summarize the fruitful cooperative relationship in the performance of pediatric liver transplantation between the two countries.
According to Dr. Tran Cong Duy Long, Deputy Head of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery cum Head of the Hepatobiliary Cancer and Liver Transplant Department of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City, children with acute and chronic liver disease almost have a little chance to recover.
He disclosed that many children died while waiting for liver transplants because Vietnamese surgeons have not been able to perform liver transplant techniques without foreign peers’ assistance, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic. The performance of pediatric liver transplants to promptly save the lives of pediatric patients has been haunting hospital doctors.
Previously in October 2021, the hospital's liver transplant team participated in an online training program on pediatric liver transplant performed by professors of the National Center for Child Health and Development.
By December 2021, despite the complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh City coordinated with Children's Hospital 2 to make concerted efforts to carry out the successful first pediatric liver transplant at the UMP.
Dr. Pham Van Tan, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, remembered liver transplants the hospital surgeons have carried out, saying that dedicated support of Japanese experts has contributed to the success of transplant operations and saved the lives of pediatric patients. Therefore, in the coming time, the hospital hopes to continue to receive support from experts in training, coaching, and supporting the hospital in the field of liver transplantation in particular and organ transplantation in general.
The hospital has so far performed 12 pediatric liver transplants. These transplants were performed entirely by a team of Vietnamese doctors without direct support from foreign experts bringing more hope for pediatric patients waiting for a liver transplant. Following the initial success, the hospital continues to cooperate with experts to routinely perform pediatric liver transplant surgery.
Most children recover well and continue to have regular check-ups and monitoring at the hospital. At the meeting, the children happily played, ran and jumped and received gifts from the hospital's doctors and Japanese experts.
Vietnamese doctors have mastered this technique, and pediatric patients have the opportunity to be saved without fear like before, said Dr. Tran Cong Duy Long.
