Dedicated liver ICU at Care Hospitals in state

‘Incidents of non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases is high among the population leading a healthy lifestyle is the need of the hour’, according to liver transplant surgeon Tom Cherian of Care Hospitals, Visakhapatnam.

Talking to the news men here on Thursday, Tom Cherian said that both alcoholic liver disease and obesity-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were ‘self-made' and caused by alterations in lifestyle. Many youngsters were succumbing to alcoholic pancreatitis and alcoholic liver disease.

In addition to these ailments, Hepatitis B and C was increasingly seen among adolescents and youngsters, particularly among the middle classes and the affluent sections, he said.

Expressing his concern over the incidence of liver disease, he said that liver transplant is the only alternative for most of the patients with end stage liver disease and the patient would lead a near normal life within a few months of surgery, though he or she has to be on lifelong medication.

Precautionary measures like regular exercise, consuming high fiber content foods, regular and more consumption of fruits and vegetables, drinking as much water as possible will help lead a healthy lifestyle, he added.

Tom Cherian further said that liver transplant unit of Care Hospitals so far performed ten liver transplantations in the last year. Patients from Nagpur, Raipur, and Bhubaneshwar underwent liver transplantation and were leading a normal life after the surgery.

“We are exploring all possibilities in developing a new dedicated liver ICU to treat all the acute and severe liver failure cases in the State by March 2016,” he said. Care Hospitals General Manager Mahendra Paul also present at the news conference.