Five liver transplants were completed in just 36 hours at the Molinette hospital in Turin, where four donated organs were used to save five lives between 8 a.m. on Friday, October 30 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, October 31. The operating block of the Liver Transplant Center at the Città della Salute e della Scienza worked without interruption under the direction of professor Renato Romagnoli, in a sequence the hospital described as one that left the center “senza eguali in Europa” — without equal in Europe.
One liver, two patients
Two of the five transplants used the split technique, dividing the liver of a deceased donor into two parts so it could serve two patients: a child and an adult. An organ from an adult donor was too large to implant whole in a 22-month-old Turin boy, weighing 13 kilograms, who had hepatoblastoma, a rare malignant liver tumor, and had undergone repeated cycles of chemotherapy at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital. The smaller portion went to the child; the larger one, kept in perfusion for three more hours, was implanted in a 62-year-old woman from the Turin area with cirrhosis from hepatitis C and hepatocarcinoma, who had become transplantable after a favorable response to immunotherapy.
A deferred kidney, and two more organs through the night
The marathon began on Friday morning with a 44-year-old woman from Liguria with polycystic liver-kidney disease, who had waited more than three years for a combined liver and kidney transplant. Surgeons removed a diseased liver weighing more than ten kilograms. The complexity of the procedure led them to postpone the kidney transplant to the following day — possible thanks to ex-situ organ perfusion machines that preserve organs outside the body after removal from the donor.
As the third operation ended, another team left for a new retrieval in Piedmont. The fourth liver went to a 24-year-old woman from the Pinerolo area, affected by autoimmune hepatocolangitis and jaundiced, who had waited more than a year; her surgery took place Saturday morning. A further donation allowed a 58-year-old man with post-hepatitis C cirrhosis complicated by hepatocarcinoma — previously treated with radioembolization — to be operated on in the afternoon, with the final operation concluding early Saturday evening.
All five patients improving
All five patients are currently staying in the surgical semi-intensive area of the Liver Transplant Center and their conditions are progressively improving. Behind the surgery stood an organizational machine involving anesthesiologists, nurses, specialists, laboratories, coordinators and transport staff, with the Regional Transplant Center and the Regional Donations and Retrievals Coordination — directed by doctor Anna Guermani — playing key roles.
General director Livio Tranchida summed up the hospital’s gratitude: “Molinette, molto più che un ospedale” — Molinette, much more than a hospital — adding that the first thought goes to the donors and their families, because the donation at the origin of every transplant is a voluntary act of generosity and above all of love. (Mondosanità, TorinoToday, Insalutenews)
