April 13rd has witnessed the first case of domino combined liver/small bowel transplantation in the world carried out by experts from FAHZU.

Four operations at the same time. A young man died from car accident underwent organ donation. His liver was divided into two parts: Mr. CHEN underwent liver transplantation combined with small bowel transplantation, and a middle-aged woman underwent liver transplantation. The part of the liver replaced by Mr. CHEN was transplanted to a 6-month-old child with congenital biliary atresia.

Mr. CHEN, who received liver transplantation combined with small bowel transplantation, underwent small bowel necrosis 2 years ago and resection of all small bowels, followed by several surgical operations. But in order to survive with higher quality, small bowel transplantation is his only hope.

Since the body's immune system has a memory function, Mr. CHEN has undergone many surgeries and has a history of multiple blood transfusions. As immune cells will store information, when the same event occurs again, the immune system will quickly launch attacks and "expel" them. If Mr. Chen undergoes only small bowel transplantation, then this "foreign organ" is bound to be violently attacked by his immune system, probably resulting in the failure of the operation.

The liver transplantation team led by Prof. LIANG tingbo, Chairman of FAHZU, and the small intestine transplantation team led by Prof. WU Guosheng proposed to use the special features of liver immunity to alleviate the severe rejection caused by small bowel transplantation, and to pave the way for small bowel transplantation by carrying out combined liver/small bowel transplantation.

The three liver transplantation operations went smoothly. After the donor liver in Mr. CHEN's body began to work, he underwent on the small bowel transplantation, which is known as "the most difficult organ transplantation technology in the world". Prof. LIANG and Prof. WU joined hands and successfully inserted a small bowel about 4 meters long into Mr. CHEN's body.

Up to now, all three recipients have stable vital signs and are recovering gradually in the liver transplantation ward.