Korean-trained Costa Rican team successfully transplant living-donor liver

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 23, 2023 | 07:58

Health & Science

Korean-trained Costa Rican team successfully transplant living-donor liver

Posted : 2023-05-24 15:04

Updated : 2023-05-24 16:47

The liver transplant team from Costa Rica's Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia Hospital pose at Asan Medical Center in Songpa District, Seoul, during their training at the Korean hospital, in this 2019 photo. Courtesy of Asan Medical Center

By Nam Hyun-woo

A Costa Rican medical team, trained at Asan Medical Center in Korea, succeeded in the country's first living-donor liver transplant, paving the way for the life-saving surgery in the Central American country.

According to Asan Medical Center, Tuesday, a liver transplant team at Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia Hospital in Costa Rica successfully performed the country's first adult living-donor liver transplant on April 11.

Through the procedure, Jeannette Lorio, 60, who was suffering from liver cirrhosis, successfully received a healthy liver from her daughter Bianca Oviedo, 32. After the 18-hour surgery, Lorio was in a stable recovery and left the hospital in a healthy condition just eight days after the surgery.

The Costa Rican team, led by Prof. Vanessa Lopez, used a modified right-lobe graft technique, which was developed by Asan Medical Center Prof. Lee Sung-gyu in 1991.

The technique is aimed at improving the success rate of living-donor liver transplant, by creating a new middle hepatic vein in the transplanted right lobe of the liver to ensure proper blood drainage in the entire right lobe. Since then, the technique has become a standard surgical procedure across the world.

Jeannette Lorio, left, who underwent Costa Rica's first adult living-donor liver transplant, and her daughter Bianca Oviedo, the donor, pose in this photo taken 25 days after the surgery. Courtesy of Asan Medical Center

In Costa Rica, the organ donation rate is relatively low with only seven out of 1 million in the population agreeing to donate their organs. The waiting list mortality rate is high at 30 percent, forcing the country to promptly adopt living-donor liver transplant.

To enable this surgery in Costa Rica, Rafael Angel Calderon Guardia Hospital reached out to Asan Medical Center, and a 24-member team from the Costa Rican hospital received training in 2019.

"With the help of the liver transplant team at Asan Medical Center, we were able to change the lives of patients and their families in Costa Rica," Prof. Vanessa said through Asan. "We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Asan Medical Center's liver transplant team for wholeheartedly passing on their expertise and contributing to our success in achieving self-sufficiency in living-donor liver transplant."

Asan Medical Center's Lee sent his congratulations and gratitude to the Costa Rican team.

"I vividly remember the image of the medical professionals from Costa Rica who displayed a great eagerness to continuously expand their knowledge during their training with us," Lee said. "We will continue to pass on our medical expertise to places that need our assistance, thereby providing patients around the world with second chances at life."

namhw@koreatimes.co.kr