KATE HAGAN
July 14, 2010
EXTRA funding will allow Melbourne's Austin Hospital to form a second dedicated surgical team to do more liver transplants - including split liver transplants where one organ is used to save the lives of both an adult and child.
The Austin is the only provider of liver transplants in Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales. It carried out 54 transplants last financial year.
However, more than 200 new patients are added to the transplant list annually, with 20 per cent dying before receiving a new liver.
Health Minister Daniel Andrews yesterday announced an extra $1.4 million a year in recurrent funding for liver transplants, which will allow the Austin to form the second, dedicated surgical team. And this will enable the service to perform more of the split liver transplants.
The Austin team performed the operation in a Victorian-first living transplant two years ago when a young mother donated a segment of her liver to save the life of her one-year-old son.
It has performed occasional split liver transplants from deceased donors for some years, but is sometimes unable to muster a second surgical team at short notice.
The director of the Austin's liver transplant unit, Professor Bob Jones, said splits were becoming more viable with growing surgical experience and better drugs. He said that with the second surgical team ''we can get most of these kids now if we do everything right''.
Split livers can help children aged up to about one, growing with them as they develop.
The medical director of the liver transplant unit, Professor Peter Angus, said demand for adult transplants was growing due to increased incidence of liver diseases, including chronic hepatitis B and C.
While the extra surgical resources will help make the most of donor organs, Mr Andrews said Australia, with one of the lowest rates of donation in the developed world, also needed more donors.
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