Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute proposes National SWAP Liver Transplant Programme

Since its inception, PKLI’s surgeons have successfully performed 2,000 kidney and liver transplants. A senior medical expert said the proposal was put forward by a panel of senior surgeons on the day the institute achieved what it described as another milestone in transplantation medicine by successfully performing the world’s first 10-way Living Donor Liver Transplant (LDLT) SWAP Chain, enabling 10 patients to receive life-saving liver transplants through a coordinated donor-exchange programme. He explained that a SWAP liver transplant is performed when a willing family donor cannot donate to the intended recipient because of blood-group incompatibility, inadequate graft size, or other medical reasons. “If a patient’s relative is an incompatible match due to blood type, liver size, or other factors, the donor can donate to another patient, whose incompatible relative, in turn, donates to the first patient,” the expert said. The SWAP liver transplants were performed by senior surgeons of the institute under the supervision of PKLI&RC Dean Prof Dr Faisal Saud Dar. The senior doctor said the achievement came a few weeks after surgeons at Inonu University Liver Transplant Institute in Turkiye reported the world’s first eight-way cross-liver transplant. The successful expansion to a 10-way chain has established a new international benchmark in living-donor liver transplantation. He said all 10 donor-recipient exchanges were completed within a 24-h