In what can be described as a rare and tough surgery, a Hyderabad-based private hospital has successfully transplanted liver in a 23-day-old male baby. The child was suffering from Galactosemia – a rare disorder caused by a defect in a single enzyme called Galactose-1-Phosphate UridylylTransferase.

This disorder affects how the body converts sugar contained in milk into glucose.

The father of the child who is 31 years old donated a portion of his liver as it was found to be suitable.

According to a Press release issued by the Yashoda Hospitals where the transplant took place, a child suffering from this disorder may appear normal at birth but starts showing symptoms within a few days or weeks.

The child in this case had respiratory distress, regular low blood sugar, jaundice, and failure to grow after birth. Without a proper and established diagnosis many patients of this disorder die.

The hospital’s Paediatric Hepatology and Transplantation surgery team found that the baby’s body weight had depleted while they were informed by the parents that two of his siblings had succumbed to liver ailment at the ages of two and nine months, respectively.

The team that performed the transplant was led by Dr K. Venugopal, Dr Balbir Singh and Dr Srinivas Prabhu Chava led the team and performed the liver transplant surgery on the baby. Stating that there was a high chance of mortality without the transplant, Dr. Venugopal said: “This is arguably the smallest paediatric transplant reported from this part of the world.”

Three weeks after the surgery the child was discharged.

While the surgery was performed a couple of months ago, the hospital disclosed the details of the case on December 1 after evaluating the child’s condition.