Both donor and recipient in the first adult liver transplant at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City are in good conditions three days after the 14-hour operation.

The information was released by Ass. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tan Cuong, Head of the hospital’s Hepatology Department, at a press briefing in the city on October 15.

While this is the first adult liver transplant from a living donor conducted at Cho Ray Hospital, it is the third case nationwide, Cuong said, adding that it was performed with the assistance of doctors from the Republic of Korea ’s ASAN Hospital.

The liver recipient was a 52-year-old woman from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong and the donor was her 22-year-old son.

At present, the son has been able to eat soup and drink milk. All his blood, liver function and immunity indexes are within the expected range, while his mother has been allowed to get up and move around.

However, doctors said both of them must stay in the isolation ward at least 1-2 weeks to avoid infection. If their health gets better without complications, they can be released from hospital in one month.


Since the first case was conducted at the Military Academy of Medicine in 2004, Vietnamese doctors have performed 24 liver transplants, including 16 on children and eight on adults. Among the eight transplants on adults, five took livers from brain-dead donors and three from living persons.-VNA