First Small Bowel Transplant Patient Of Mumbai Embarks On A New Journey

Global Hospital, a centre for multi organ transplantation conducted the first ever small bowel transplant in Mumbai on Anirban Samanta, a 46 year old patient from Kolkata. Dr. Gaurav Chaubal with his team of doctors performed this complex surgery. Small bowel transplant, a complex and rare surgery has been conducted approximately 12-18 times in India. More than 50% of these surgeries were conducted in Maharashtra alone and this is the first surgery conducted in Mumbai.

Mr. Anirban Samanta had diffuse severe abdominal pain in April 2022, which was diagnosed as Superior Mesenteric Artery Thrombosis leading to Bowel Gangrene for which he was treated at a local hospital. He underwent resection anastomosis and jejunostomy on 17^th April 2022. He was on parenteral nutrition since then and was listed with ZTCC in May 2022. An alert was received on 18^th May 2022, and the team went for retrieval after receiving a negative report on the CDC cross match.

Dr. Gaurav Chaubal,  Director - liver, pancreas, intestine transplant programme and HPB surgery at Global Hospital, Parel, said, “The donation of the Small Bowel is important to treat people who suffer bowel failures caused by twisting of the bowel, birth defects, or when a part of the bowel tissue dies. Dr. Chaubal added, “Early last month, Anirban was listed with the Zonal Transplant Coordination Center (ZTCC), Mumbai, for an organ transplant as this was the only treatment available for him given the challenges he faced. The patient has shown phenomenal progress post- surgery and has fully recovered. I urge people to come forward and donate organs for those who are in need, this might give them a new hope to live their lives.” Dr. Chaubal has successfully conducted over 600 complex surgeries like Living donor Intestine Transplants, Liver Transplants, Simultaneous Kidney Pancreas transplant, Simultaneous Liver Kidney Transplants and complex HepatoPancreaticoBiliary surgeries.

Small bowel transplant may be considered for people with bowel failure who develop complications from total parenteral nutrition (TPN - where a person requires all their nutrition to be given through a drip into a vein because their bowel is unable to absorb nutrients from any food they eat). Bowel failure means a person's bowel is not able to absorb enough nutrients from food. It's most often caused by either short bowel syndrome or a non-functioning bowel. Intestinal transplants are very complex and rare across the world and very few doctors have specialisation in such transplants. Small bowel is a complex organ and transplants are prone to rejection. Dr Gaurav is trained to do such surgeries and has the largest series of small bowel transplants in western India including Living donor small bowel transplants. Such rare and complex case studies have helped us set new benchmarks not only in India but internationally too.

Mr. Anirban Samanta said, “When I was in Kolkata the doctors there lost all the hope that I would even survive more than two months and then later when we got to know about Dr Gaurav Chaubal who specialises in such cases and we came down to Mumbai to meet him and we got hope that I might survive through this. And my surgery was successful. Me and my family feel blessed and grateful that the transplant was successful, considering that just a few dozen small bowel transplants have been performed in the country so far. We would like to thank the donor family for taking the magnanimous decision of donating organs in time of grief for them.

Dr. Vivek Talaulikar, CEO, Global Hospital, Parel, lauded the entire team for taking up challenging and complex cases and delivering excellent clinical outcomes. He mentioned “The success of the Intestine Transplant is a proud moment for the hospital as with the discharge of this patient, Global Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, is the only private hospital in India to have to its credit multi-organ transplants like Kidney, Liver, Heart, Lung, Pancreas, Hand and Small bowel. Global Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, has always been on the forefront of Transplant care in western India with multiple firsts to its name with regards to Liver, Kidney, Heart, Hand and now small bowel Transplant. It is a matter of pride for the hospital that the transplant surgeon Dr. Gaurav Chaubal who performed Mumbai’s first small bowel transplant also started the living donor intestine program and performed the first transplant on a paediatric patient in Singapore.”