Asan Medical Center Leads First Living Donor Liver Transplantation at Makati Medical Center in the Philippines, Which Had No Prior Experience in Liver Transplantation

 

To Help Establish Liver Transplantation Independence, Asan Medical Center Provided Two Years of Training and Support to Local Medical Professionals

 

"We Will Actively Collaborate So That Asan Medical Center’s Liver Transplantation System Can Help Save More Lives."

 

▲ The liver transplantation team from Asan Medical Center (including Professors Ki-Hun Kim, Chul-Soo Ahn, and Sang-Hoon Kim from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery; Professors Jun-Gul Song and Hyemi Kwon from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine; and the OR Nursing Team) poses for a commemorative photo with local medical staff in front of the operating room at Makati Medical Center in the Philippines, following the successful living donor liver transplant performed on the 18th of last month.

 

A 23-year-old Filipino man, once standing at death’s door due to a rare and intractable disease, was miraculously given a new lease on life through South Korea’s advanced living donor liver transplantation. Despite having undergone three abdominal surgeries due to a past gunshot injury, his mother made the courageous decision to donate a portion of her liver to save her son. After an intense 11-hour operation, the family was finally able to smile again.

 

On Wednesday, June 18, the liver transplantation team from Asan Medical Center — including Professors Ki-Hun Kim, Chul-Soo Ahn, and Sang-Hoon Kim from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery; Professors Jun-Gul Song and Hyemi Kwon from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine; and the OR Nursing Team — successfully performed a living donor liver transplantation at Makati Medical Center in the Philippines. The liver transplantation team successfully performed a living donor liver transplantation on Mr. Reyes, a 23-year-old male patient suffering from primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), by transplanting a portion of his mother’s liver.

 

This living donor liver transplantation, the first of its kind performed since the opening of Makati Medical Center 56 years ago, was a highly complex procedure for both the donor and the recipient. Despite the high level of surgical difficulty, both patients recovered smoothly and were recently discharged in good health.

 

Mr. Reyes had been suffering from recurrent cholangitis for the past four years, and his condition recently worsened to the point where he was admitted to the intensive care unit with sepsis. Due to chronic inflammation of the bile ducts, his liver function had severely declined, and his overall condition had deteriorated to the extent that recovery was no longer possible through conservative treatment alone.

 

Professors Chul-Soo Ahn, and Sang-Hoon Kim from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Asan Medical Center found that the patient’s bile ducts were extensively affected by inflammation and strictures. They removed the diseased liver along with the extrahepatic bile ducts and successfully transplanted a new liver. Since duct-to-duct anastomosis was not feasible, they completed the transplantation by connecting the bile duct of the transplanted liver to the jejunum.

 

Maria Lorena Mendoza Babao (50), the patient’s mother, had previously undergone three abdominal surgeries due to bowel perforation caused by a gunshot wound, which raised concerns about severe intra-abdominal adhesions. Prioritizing her safety, Professor Ki-Hun Kim from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Asan Medical Center, together with the local medical team, opted for an open donor hepatectomy instead of laparoscopic surgery and successfully removed a portion of her liver.

 

Even after returning to Korea, the liver transplantation team at Asan Medical Center continued to actively support for the patient’s recovery through regular remote consultations with Makati Medical Center. The mother recovered well and was discharged just five days after surgery, and her son is also making a healthy recovery and is expected to be discharged this week.

 

The partnership between Asan Medical Center and Makati Medical Center began in 2023 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for medical exchange and collaboration.

 

In the Philippines, liver transplantation survival rates fall short of international standards, and the country has relatively limited experience in performing liver transplantations compared to other nations. Additionally, the number of organ donors remains stagnant at approximately one donor per million people, creating an urgent need for collaboration with specialized medical professionals in living donor liver transplantation.

 

Makati Medical Center in the Philippines, which had never performed a liver transplantation surgery even once, requested collaboration with Asan Medical Center, which is renowned worldwide for its expertise in living donor liver transplantation, for medical staff exchanges and training support. In response, Asan Medical Center decided to provide comprehensive training in living donor liver transplantation to help improve the overall medical standards in the Philippines.

 

In 2023, Asan Medical Center invited nine medical professionals from Makati Medical Center in the Philippines to experience its advanced clinical and surgical systems and receive comprehensive training in the entire liver transplantation process. In October 2024, Professor Ki-Hun Kim was invited to deliver a lecture at Makati Medical Center’s “Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation” seminar, sharing the extensive expertise accumulated in the fields of liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery.

 

▲ (Left) Mr. Reyes, who received a life-saving liver transplantation from Korean medical professionals, sent a photo of himself giving two thumbs up with the message “Korean medicine is the best.”

(Right) The family of the mother and son who underwent the living donor liver transplantation visited Makati Medical Center to express their gratitude to the Korean medical team. Professor Ki-Hun Kim (second from left), from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Asan Medical Center, is pictured with them.

 

Mr. Reyes shared, “As my condition continued to worsen hearing that the surgery would be performed at the world’s leading hospital in liver transplantation gave me hope for the first time. I am deeply grateful to the medical team from Asan Medical Center who traveled all the way here to give me a new lease on life.”

 

Professor Ki-Hun Kim of the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at Asan Medical Center stated, “Due to the donor’s history of abdominal surgeries, the procedure was highly complex. However, we approached the surgery with a strong sense of duty to honor the family’s dedication. The shared commitment to saving a life, along with the active cooperation of the Makati medical team, enabled us to successfully complete the operation.” He added, “This surgery holds great significance as it has laid the foundation for the local medical team to eventually perform liver transplantation independently. We plan to provide structured, advanced training programs and support the supply of essential surgical equipment to help establish a stable liver transplantation system at Makati Medical Center. We hope that continued collaboration with Makati Medical Center will lead to saving many more lives in the Philippines.”

 

To date, the liver transplantation team at Asan Medical Center has performed 7,550 living donor liver transplantations. In May of this year, the hospital reached a total of 9,000 liver transplantations, including deceased donor cases, setting the world record for the highest number of liver transplantations performed by a single medical institution.