Officials from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi have announced that they conducted their first live liver donation surgery on 11th July 2023. They stated that they performed the surgery on a liver cirrhosis patient, with the patient's wife serving as the donor.

After making the decision in March and establishing an eight-member committee led by Dr.Pranjal Modi, Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University of Transplantation Sciences, the institute proceeded with the surgery. Dr. Modi headed the first surgery with assistance from a team of doctors from the institute.

A doctor who was a part of surgery said -

“The patient is a 50-year-old resident of Assam and was suffering from end-stage liver failure and Cirrhosis. His wife donated a part of her liver. As of now, the patient and donor are doing well. However, these procedures are associated with very high complications post-operations. That is why, they are under close watch.”

In a living donor liver transplant, a healthy person's liver is surgically transplanted into another person. At present, the cost of live-donor liver transplants in private hospitals ranges between Rs 22 and 25 lakh. “At AIIMS, the cost is between Rs 11-15 lakh. For poor patients, we are also reaching out to health ministry for funding,” said an official.