Prague, Aug 29 (CTK) – Doctors of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague performed a combined heart-liver transplantation on a 59-year-old man in June, their representatives told a press conference today.
This has been the second operation of its kind performed in the country. In 2005, Czech doctors in Brno transplanted the heart, liver and kidney at once. The first combined heart-liver transplantation was performed in the United States in 1984.
After the nine-hour operation, the patient was threatened with heart failure and cirrhosis. The liver and heart were from one donor, which increases the chance that the operation is successful.
The heart was transplanted immediately after the liver.
IKEM’s Transplantation Surgery Department head doctor Jiri Fronek said the liver usually is not transplanted unless the heart is working well.
Fronek said they were ready to immediately connect the patient’s heart with an innovative machine if needed, but it was not necessary.
The patient, Petr Ton, was released from IKEM one month after the operation. He has been using medicines to suppress the immunity reaction, but he feels well.
Ton said he bought an electric bike and made a 30-kilometre trip in the mountains several days ago.
IKEM director Ales Herman said this operation launched the programme of combined heart-liver transplantations at the hospital, with one or two such cases to be performed a year.
In 2002, IKEM started with heart-kidney transplantations and seven such operations have been performed so far. Ten years ago, heart-lung transplantations began in IKEM and three patients have been treated within the programme until now.
