Chandan Hospital brings Advanced Liver Transplant Care to Uttar Pradesh

Liver disease is advancing quietly across India, and the numbers are beginning to show it. Hepatitis A, B, and C, fatty liver disease, and cirrhosis are being diagnosed with growing frequency, driven by a combination of lifestyle and environmental pressures: heavier alcohol consumption, poor dietary habits, rising rates of obesity and diabetes, and mounting contamination of food and water sources. Compounding the problem is a persistent gap in early screening, which means a large share of patients only learn of their condition once the liver has already sustained irreversible damage.

The scale of the shortfall is stark. India requires an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 liver transplants annually, yet only 3,000 to 4,000 are actually performed. The resulting gap leaves tens of thousands of patients each year without access to a procedure that, at the advanced stages of liver disease, is frequently their only remaining option.

For patients who do reach transplant, the outlook has changed considerably from what it once was. The procedure involves removing a failing liver and replacing it with a healthy one, sourced either from a living donor or a deceased donor, restoring the organ's function and, in most cases, returning patients to a normal life expectancy.

Liver disease moves through stages, from fatty liver to fibrosis to cirrhosis. According to Dr. Ashish Mishra, Head and Chairperson of the Chandan Liver Transplant & HPB Institute, there are four warning signs that typically indicate the liver has failed to a point where transplant becomes necessary: fluid buildup in the abdomen (ascites), vomiting blood, confusion or altered mental state caused by hepatic encephalopathy, and jaundice.

"When these four symptoms appear together, it usually means the liver has failed substantially, and transplant may be the only way forward," Dr. Mishra said.

There are two routes to a liver transplant: living donor transplant, where a portion of a healthy liver is taken from a willing donor, and deceased donor (cadaveric) transplant, where the organ comes from someone who has been declared brain dead. Patients in north India seeking a deceased donor transplant have historically had to travel to hospitals in the south, where the programs are more established. Chandan Hospital in Lucknow says it now offers both options in-house.

The Chandan Liver Transplant & HPB Institute has built its program around keeping every related specialty under one roof. Liver transplant surgery, hepatology, pathology, interventional radiology, radiology, ICU care and anesthesia are all available on site.

A point the hospital emphasizes is that its transplant surgeons are not a visiting or touring team. They are in-house staff who perform the surgery and remain at the hospital to manage the patient's recovery, including any complications that arise afterward. Interventional radiology, anesthesia, ICU and gastroenterology teams also operate alongside the team of doctors.

Liver transplant surgery involves two parallel operations, one on the donor and one on the recipient, carried out by separate surgical teams working in coordination. It demands both surgical skill and years of hands-on experience. The hospital says its transplant team has a combined experience of over 2,000 liver transplants, built up over 10 to 15 years across various transplant centers in the country.

The multidisciplinary team includes gastroenterologists, hepatologists, liver transplant surgeons, anesthesiologists, ICU specialists, radiologists and interventional radiologists, all of whom have worked in dedicated liver transplant units. The operation theatre is equipped with the latest Da Vinci Robotic System and other equipment used in transplant surgery, and the OT technical staff have also been part of liver transplant procedures for over a decade.

Post-surgery complications, when they occur, need to be managed quickly, and the hospital points to its in-house surgical team's constant presence as a factor in how such situations are handled, as opposed to cases where operating surgeons are not immediately available after discharge.

Cost remains one of the biggest barriers to liver transplant in India, and a source of confusion for many families weighing their options. Chandan Hospital says its liver transplant packages are among the more affordable ones in Uttar Pradesh and the country, and that it works with patients on financing options as well as government schemes such as the Mukhyamantri Rahat Kosh to bring the cost of treatment within reach for more families.

With both living and deceased donor transplant now available at the hospital, patients in Uttar Pradesh have an option that previously meant traveling out of state, often to hospitals in the south. Chandan Hospital's Liver Transplant & HPB Institute is positioning itself as a full-service center for the procedure, backed by a permanent, in-house team available at all hours.