Kuwait’s first liver transplant
Conducted for a patient with cirrhosis of the liver
In an unprecedented medical achievement, a joint Kuwaiti-British medical team performed the first liver transplant at Kuwait’s Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital.
Commenting on this feat, Kuwait’s Minister of Health Dr. Basel Al Sabah said “the transplant was offered to a Kuwaiti patient suffering from acute cirrhosis of the liver, with a complete deterioration of its function; this meant that the only remedy to save the patient’s life was for the patient to undergo a liver transplant from a brain deceased patient after receiving consent from his next of kin.
The Kuwaiti Minister added that the joint Kuwaiti – British medical team that carried out the procedure in Kuwait were operating under a joint agreement between the Kuwait Ministry of Health and the Liver Transplant Division of Kings College Hospital on of Great Britain’s largest liver transplant centers that conduct over 250 similar operations per year.
The Kuwaiti Minister stressed that “this agreement is cornerstone for the establishment of a permanent program for liver transplants in Kuwait through training and promotion of capabilities of national Kuwaiti experts in the field, ultimately leading to a self sufficient practice in the long run.”
