Typically, the patient suffering from Liver Cirrhosis will be under the treatment of a hepatologist. At ILBS, Dr. S.K. Sarin is the senior most doctor leading this department and most likely you are being monitored by his team for liver cirrhosis treatment if you had chosen ILBS as your place for getting treated against this disease.
Once you have entered almost the end of Cirrhosis stage 3 which marks decompensated Cirrhosis, it’s most likely that you will be advised by the doctors to seriously think and plan the liver transplant before it reaches Stage 4 Cirrhosis.
Note: Once you have decided to go for liver transplant and even have the donor/s identified, the process for planned surgery can easily take around 3 months so be prepared for the journey accordingly.
At this point, your case will be handed over to the Surgeon team at ILBS which currently is being led by Dr. Viniyendra Pamecha and from here on you will be monitored by his team.
Recipient Work Up Guide, you need to take the Recipient or the patient suffering from liver cirrhosis to ILBS hospital on a Wednesday which is the main OPD day when Dr. Pamecha does consultation. Get the consultation billed for Dr. Pamecha at the OPD reception in phase-2 building and then go to Section D and give your file to the nurse (Sister Manju is quite efficient) there so she can put you in queue for consultation with Dr Pamecha and his team.
Day 1, on your consultation they will explain the surgery risk and provide you with a work-up guide which basically has the list of tests the Recipient must go through and pass those tests.
From here on your task is to complete all the steps in this work-up guide and you need to visit various specialists to pass the tests mentioned in your work-up guide.
Below is a picture of the work-up guide and the list of tests and the sequence in which they need to be done to complete the process with minimum fuss.
- As the work-up guide indicates at the top, your first consultation is with the surgical team responsible for the liver transplant. This team is headed by Dr. V Pamecha.
- In the phase-2 building, at the OPD reception, get the token and upon your turn ask for a consultation with Dr V Pamecha. This you must plan on a Wednesday as that’s the day when Dr. Pamecha does open day for patient’s consultation.
- Once you have the consultation billed paper, you need to go to section D and give your file for consultation to the staff of nurse present there. They will record your weight and BP and put your file in queue for consultation with Dr Pamecha and his team.
- You will be called for consultation first with a junior doctor in Dr Pamecha’s team, he/she will look at the file to evaluate current state of cirrhosis and check your physical state as well as willingness to go for a surgery.
- They will also give you the work up guide and mark the tests, based on your evaluation, you need to go through and get approvals from various specialists like pulmonary, urologist, cardiologist etc.
- Next you need to go to the transplant coordination department in room 2061.
- Coordination dept. will do your data feed into the computer and can also explain and answer questions related to pre/post surgery process, the cost details etc. They will then sign and also tick on the specific tests to be done.
- Overall, there are 3 categories of tests:
- Blood and Urine: You need to get the billing done for this at the phase-2, OPD reception and be empty stomach to give your samples at 2041, the window is just behind the billing reception.
- Radiological: These are various scans like ultra-sound, DSE, ECG etc. as indicated by surgical team and confirmed by coordination department.
- Various Specialists Consent: Depending on which all specialists’ approvals are required/recommended by the surgeon team like Cardiologist, Pulmonary etc, you need to take consultation with that specialist doctor either at ILBS or outside. These specialists will further ask you for specific tests and based on the results of these tests provide their approval that you are okay to go through the surgery.
Below is the location map of various departments in ILBS:
Once you have the clearance from the respective specialists as ticked in your work-up guide, you need to get Pre-anesthesia checkup (PAC) done in the phase-1 building on 1st floor. Based on this check-up by the anesthetist he might ask for couple of additional tests to be done before giving clearance from his/her side.
Post PAC clearance, you are ready to start the process which includes arranging blood as well as legal paperwork required to get the surgery date from the surgical team, I will cover the required steps in a separate blog.