The Children’s Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City has resumed liver transplantation after an eight-month suspension, said a hospital representative on Monday.

One of the child patients set to undergo liver transplantation at the hospital is an 11-year-old boy residing in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam.

This boy suffered from biliary atresia and underwent surgery, or Kassai operation, when he was one month old.

His mother will be his liver donor.

To support the Children's Hospital 2 in performing the operation, surgeons from University Medical Center in the city will take charge of removing part of the mother’s liver.

The Children’s Hospital 2 previously announced that it had performed no liver transplant between October last year and May this year, mostly due to an organ shortfall and the hospital having to wait for a project on organ transplantation to be appraised.

Moreover, doctors at the pediatric hospital faced difficulties linked to medical certifications for performing organ transplantation on adults.

In addition, the hospital has a modest number of operating rooms and a shortage of human resources.

Lately, the hospital completed the construction of two modern organ transplant rooms.

The municipal Department of Health helped evaluate the hospital’s independent project on pediatric transplant.

The project will be submitted to the Ministry of Health for appraisal and approval.

If the project is approved, the pediatric hospital will be eligible to put the two new organ transplant rooms into service and perform liver transplantation for three child patients per month, instead of only one monthly.

To perform pediatric transplants before, the pediatric hospital had to collaborate with University Medical Center and Cho Ray Hospital, also based in the city, so that they could carry out operations for adult liver donors.

In related news, the demand for organ and tissue transplantation in children is on the rise, said Trinh Huu Tung, director at the Children’s Hospital 2, at a seminar on June 17.

The Children’s Hospital 2 is the sole public healthcare center for pediatric transplants in the southern metropolis and the southern region.

As for liver transplantation, the hospital reported 25 transplants linked to living liver donors, with the medical follow-up of 0.5-17 years.

Eighty percent of the liver recipients survive, while liver donors did not experience complications post donation.

The liver transplants at the hospital generated positive outcomes, partly thanks to the support of experienced medical centers at home and abroad, the director said.

However, the hospital needs further support to solve issues linked to legality, finance, personnel, medical equipment, and medicine to better serve organ transplants, he said.​

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