New Kobe hospital to halt liver transplant surgeries after 4 deaths

KOBE — A hospital that opened last November in Kobe where four out of seven liver transplant recipients died in its first four months said today (April 18) it will halt the operations for the time being.

The four — two Japanese and two Indonesians — died within one month after receiving livers from living donors at the Kobe International Frontier Medical Centre in western Japan.

The move follows a probe by the Japanese Liver Transplantation Society, a group of liver transplant surgeons across the nation. The society found a shortage of medical staff at the facility and insufficient examinations of both donors and recipients before surgeries, according to sources close to the group.

Kyoto University professor emeritus Koichi Tanaka, 73, a veteran liver transplant surgeon and director of the hospital, told reporters that planned surgeries will be put on hold as the medical facility reviews its procedures based on a report by the transplantation society.

Prof Tanaka also said the four deaths were not caused by operations that should not have been performed.

Liver transplants from living donors involve removing part of a healthy person’s liver and transplanting it into a recipient, often the donor’s relative, who suffers from conditions such as liver cancer or biliary atresia — inflammation of the bile ducts causing liver damage. KYODO NEWS