LAHORE, Feb 24: A group of local doctors made a history on Friday when they independently performed living-related complicated liver transplant surgery on a patient at Shaikh Zayed Hospital.

Earlier, all three liver transplant operations, including two living-related, were conducted at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital jointly by a team of doctors comprising local and foreign surgeons.

This time a four-member team of Shaikh Zayed Hospital surgeons performed the 15-hour long successful living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) independently and without the help of foreign doctors.

The Friday’s successful operation has ranked Pakistan among those ‘selected countries’ which are independent for the highly complex and sensitive surgeries of living-related liver transplantations that involve more risks compared to the cadaver.

A senior doctor said the operation was performed on 50-year-old patient Muhammad Anwar of Sialkot who was shifted to Shaikh Zayed Hospital with chronic liver failure.

Kamrin, the 19-year-old niece of the patient, donated her liver. The operation started at 6am on Friday and completed at 9pm.

He said the living donor liver transplantation was performed by senior surgeons Dr Tariq Bangash, Dr Amir Latif, Dr Khawar Shahzad and Dr Umer Ali.

The condition of both the recipient and the donor was stable and they would recover within two weeks or so, he said and added that they were shifted to ICU for post-operative care.

Expressing his pleasure over the independent and successful liver transplantation at Shaikh Zayed Hospital, he said Pakistan had enlisted its name among the countries known for specialized surgeries.

“We have introduced Pakistan in the international market for LDLT and cadaver surgeries,” he said adding the day was not far when patients from Europe, Arab and other countries would prefer Pakistan for liver transplantation.