Doctors of the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital perform the transplant on February 15. (Photo: VNA) The transplanted organs were taken from a brain-dead donor.
Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Uoc, director of the hospital’s Cardiovascularand Thoracic Centre, said the patient who received the organs is a 37-year-oldman living in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. He suffered fromdilated cardiomyopathy, heart failure and severe arrhythmias, leading toend-stage renal failure.
He underwent hemodialysis continuously for five to six years and often receivedemergency treatment at major cardiovascular centres in Ho Chi Minh City and ThuaThien-Hue province.
Due to ineffective treatment, he was instructed by doctors to have a heart andkidney transplant.
In mid-2022, he was introduced to the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital.After careful evaluation, the hospital's experts agreed to perform asimultaneous heart and kidney transplant for the patient with donated organsfrom a brain-dead donor.
Transplanting both organs at the same time is a big challenge, requiringdoctors to be well prepared, Uoc said.
In six months since the transplantation decision was made, no donatedbrain-dead organ truly matched, and the patient had to continue to visithospitals for heart and kidney treatment.
In early February 2023, one woman who had a brain death due to a severetraumatic brain injury after a traffic accident donated multiple organs withfamily consensus.
The transplant surgery lasted for 10 hours from 9am to 7pm on February 15 withthe participation of doctors from five centres and clinical departments.
It took the team three hours to take out the organs, five hours to transplantthe heart and two hours to transplant the kidney.
“The transplantation was performed successfully thanks to skillful cooperationbetween heart, kidney transplant and anaesthesia resuscitation technicians aswell as careful preparation of medical facilities and advanced equipment,” saidProfessor Tran Binh Giang, the hospital’s director.
The patient’s heart and kidney recovered fully on February 24, eight days afterthe transplant.
He can sit up, eat and communicate without special assistance.
He will undergo further post-transplant treatment in the next few weeks.
This was the first time Vietnamese doctors have successfully performed atransplant of heart and kidney organs on one patient.
Vietnamese doctors have performed two organ transplants on one patient threetimes.
Two years ago, the Vietnam-Germany Hospital doctors conducted a liver andkidney transplant on a patient.
VNA
