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Turkey provides the largest and comprehensive healthcare services in the world. Liver transplant surgery is one of the comprehensive services. In past 2 decades, Liver transplant has shown important advances. The surgery is successfully performed in many centers in Turkey.
First Liver transplant surgery was successfully performed in 1988 by Haberal et al . As of now, there are 45 liver transplant centers in turkey. However, one-quarter of them perform on an average of 20 liver transplants per year.
Turkey is becoming the choice of destination among people due to its great infrastructure. The infrastructure, the medical fraternity is highly skilled with rich experience and expertise in their field. In the present scenario, the survival rate is also high as 90 percent within one year of surgery. Other than this, organ preservation and donation are also at a good scale in Turkey.
Other than this, the accommodation facilities are also good and inexpensive. In Liver transplant surgery you might require a long-term stay for treatment and follow-up visits, thus finding suitable, inexpensive, and pocket-friendly accommodation is very easy in Turkey. The additional benefit is hospitals are well connected to airports.
Liver transplant surgery otherwise is highly expensive. However, in Turkey, the cost is pocket-friendly. The cost of liver transplant in Turkey goes around 70,000-80,000 USD, however in other western countries, the cost is three times of this cost that usually ranges from 150,000 USD to 500,000 USD in other western countries.
Due to its infrastructure, skilled doctors and nurses, pocket-friendly accommodation, less Liver transplant cost compared to other countries, and excellent overall healthcare facilities and quality, Turkey is considered a top medical tourism destination.
Turkey has started a new development in 1988, that is Live donor liver transplantation (LDLT ). The first successful LDLT was conducted in the year 1999 thus Turkey become popular in both techniques of liver transplantation that is either by organ donation from dead or brain dead patient or by LDLT.
Turkey is now among the top three countries in the world in terms of doing Liver transplant operations.
Turkey is among the top three countries in the world doing live donor liver transplant operations. Organ availability is one of the major problems and cadaver organ donation is not sufficient to meet the requirements. Thus some countries like turkey have started the initiative of LDLT (Live donor liver transplant ). Two third of liver transplant in Turkey is done by LDLT.
However, there is a need to create awareness among people for organ donation to meet the requirements.
A healthy liver is very important and plays a key role in carrying out various functions from absorption of nutrients to elimination of bacteria. The liver plays an important role in the storage of vitamins, minerals, and glycogen. It also plays a role in the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates.
Due to some acute or chronic issues, the liver gets diseased and loses its normal functioning. The patients require liver transplant surgery in the following cases –
If the liver becomes diseased and left untreated, the patients experience one of the following symptoms based on the severity of the disease.
Various tests are required to evaluate and decide about liver transplant surgery. Various tests are conducted in detail before planning for the transplant surgery. Few tests are like x rays, liver biopsy reports, liver function tests are done to evaluate, to identify whether you are the right candidate for transplant or not, and to plan the surgery.
The other detailed tests are conducted at the center along with the overall health status of the patient. These tests include –
Not everyone is eligible for Liver transplant. Many criteria need to be fulfilled to become eligible for the surgery.
A person with a liver disease wherein other conservative and medical treatment fails and the only option left is liver transplant could a candidate for surgery.
Waiting list
MELD ( Model of end-stage liver disease ) is the criteria to put the recipient of a liver transplant on the waiting list for an organ. Various blood tests, investigations, age of the patient are analyzed and thus the score is calculated through the computer. The patient with other good overall health and more severe disease is put on the top of the waiting list.
The waiting period could go beyond 6 months and in between this time regular health check-ups, blood investigations, and regular visits to your healthcare provider are important.
Once it is decided that the person needs to get Liver transplant, further evaluation is done to identify if the person is the right candidate.
The one having one or other associated diseases is not eligible for Liver transplant surgery.
If there is liver failure that is at the acute stage, the living donor transplant could be a good option rather than proceeding with the disease to chronic liver failure and getting the full organ liver transplant.
Donor eligibility criteria
A candidate who voluntarily wants to do the donation without any pressure has compatible blood type with that of the recipient with good overall health including physical and mental health, not more than 60 years of age and not less than 18 years of age are eligible for donation.
Other than this, the donor should not have any severe disease of the kidney, heart, and lungs. He/she should not have any active or systemic infection.
Fact – Once you donate the part/portion of your liver, the cells regenerate and your liver grows to almost its actual size. Not only of the donor but the recipient’s organ also grows close to its original size.
Liver transplant surgery is carried out based on the availability of donors and several other factors. There are two types of donor –
When you decide on Liver transplant in Turkey firstly you need to consult the transplant center in turkey to get yourself registered, to identify whether you are eligible for a transplant or not.
After that the donor is identified, in case the recipient doesn’t have a living donor available, the candidate is then put on the waiting list and MELD is calculated depending on the age, blood type, overall health, and how urgent the transplant is required.
The waiting period is not fixed it could range from 1 month to 6 months to 4 years. Once the donor is available, the recipient is called immediately.
However, if the living donor is available, the team of the hospital would advise you to get all the investigations and blood tests and thus would identify if nor not the donor is matching the eligibility criteria.
After selecting the suitable hospital and once the donor-recipient criteria are met, you would be called immediately for the surgery. You thus need to apply for your medical visa. The stay in Turkey totally depends on your overall health post-surgery, thus the exact length could not be calculated but it is usually around 15- 20 days. Rest depend on the recipient’s operative health status.
The surgery is performed under general anesthesia and takes around 6 hours to 12 hours. The monitoring of vitals is like heart rate, respiratory done oxygen levels are monitored by an anesthesiologist with the help of medical equipment’s. The blood pressure is constantly monitored.
If the transplant is done from a live donor, the portion of the liver is removed from a healthy donor and transplanted into the donor’s body and finally, the blood vessels and bile duct are connected to ensure the good working of the liver.
After the surgery, the patient is monitored in ICU ( Intensive Care Unit ) where the functioning of the heart, kidney, lungs, and liver is checked.
The patient is moved to a normal ward after surgery and once the doctor feels the patient is towards recovery. All the routine investigations like blood tests including Liver function tests, kidney function tests, complete blood profile, lung function tests are done to check if everything is fine.
Along with antibiotics, immunosuppressant’s are started to prevent the chances of organ rejection by the body and prevent the chances of any new infection.
This would take around 15- 20 days of hospital stay, a rough estimate, however, the length of stay completely depends on the individual case.
The discharge is done based on the overall health status and good recovery by the patient but follow-up visits are advised.
The recovery period completely depends on the individual case. It could range from 3 months to 6 months. The doctor would advise you regarding all the precautions, about how and when to resume your normal daily routine and daily activities.
However regular medical check-ups, follow-up visits, and medications would continue for few months, or in some cases, the medications continue for a lifetime too.
The moderate sensation of pain is common after any surgery. However, the pain subsides with medications and recovery occurs in few months.
Pediatric liver transplant in Turkey is increasing at a large scale and successful Liver transplant in kids is carried out to date.
On the final note, it is concluded that due to good quality of treatment at an affordable rate with the latest technology, a patient can visit to Turkey from all over the world. One could think of planning Liver transplant in Turkey.
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