Ray of hope for liver patients

Saudi Gazette report

One third of patients suffering from liver diseases in the Kingdom require liver transplant operations, says Dr. Mohammad Al-Sebayel, a leading liver specialist at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center (KFSHRC) in Riyadh.

He has called for setting up specialized mobile medical units to harvest organs from donors. “Such mobile units have tripled organ donations in the Riyadh region in recent years compared to the past,” he said while talking to Al-Madinah Arabic daily.

Al-Sebayel said the establishment of King Abdullah Center for Cancer and Liver Diseases, which would be operational at KFSHRC shortly, would bring about qualitative improvement in treatment of liver diseases.

“We also need a mega center for organ donation that would meet the requirements of hospitals,” he added.

Al-Sebayel, who is head of the department for liver and small bowel transplant and hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery at the hospital, said about 150 liver transplant operations take place in the Kingdom annually with a 90 percent success rate.

“About 75 percent of these operations take place at King Faisal Specialist Hospital,” Al-Sebayel said.

About 2,000 liver transplant operations have taken place in the Kingdom since the program was introduced a few years ago.

Al-Sebayel, who has won the GCC Award for Excellence in appreciation of his medical contributions, is a leading surgeon in the field. He has been successful in treating a large number of patients. He has also been instrumental in improving the standard of liver transplant operations in the Kingdom to international level.

Al-Sebayel’s interest in liver diseases began in the 1980s while working at King Saud University Unit of Shumaisy Hospital in Riyadh where he saw a large number of liver patients.

“In the 1980s, a liver disease meant sure death as there was no proper treatment available while the transplant operation was not an option for most patients,” he pointed out.

The suffering of patients encouraged him to specialize in the field. He later obtained advanced training in liver transplant operations from specialized centers abroad after obtaining a fellowship in medicine. He was also influenced by Dr. Thomas Starzl, an expert in liver transplant operations.

He thanked the National Guard Health Affairs for sending him abroad to specialize in liver transplant operations at an advanced medical center in Pittsburg, which was supervised by Dr. Starzl. He completed the training in 1993.

After returning to Riyadh he started preparations for the first liver transplant operation program in the Arab world. “The preparations took six months and the first operation was conducted in 1994, which was a big medical event and a marvelous national achievement.”

In 2001, Sebayel moved to King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, where he conducted a large number of successful liver operations. “In 2002 we have started transplanting liver from live donors,” he said.

He said the National Program to Promote Organ Donation has played an important role in encouraging more people to donate organs to save lives of patients suffering from chronic diseases.

Speaking about various liver diseases, he said some of them would spread through blood and contaminated shaving and cupping devices. There is another type which is hereditary and runs in some families. Medical tests of couples before marriage can avoid such diseases to some extent. The third type is found among highly obese patients and this has started increasing in recent years.

Effective treatment has been found for the viral diseases affecting liver, he added.

“Some liver patients take herbal medicines leading to unnecessary complications,” the specialist said, stressing the need for health awareness campaigns to educate the public on the disease, its proper treatment and the danger posed by certain herbal medicines.

He commended the progress of organ donation in the Kingdom, which has been endorsed by the Shariah. The Council of Senior Islamic Scholars has issued a clear religious ruling or fatwa in this respect, allowing relatives of brain dead patients to donate their organs.

“Despite all these fatwas, some people are still hesitant to donate organs,” Al-Sebayel said while calling for more awareness programs to correct wrong notions. The medical community should explain what is brain-dead and the importance of organ donation to save lives of patients, he added.

He said the Health Ministry should remove all obstacles facing organ donation. “We should give proper treatment to the brain-dead to make use of their organs while more specialists are required to convince families about the importance of organ donation.”

He emphasized the importance of acquiring modern science and technology to achieve greater progress not only in healthcare but also in other fields. “We should strengthen our faith in God and attain knowledge and expertise to confront the challenges facing us.”

Al-Sebayel, who is president and founder of Pan-Arab Liver Transplant Society, expressed his hope that all liver patients would achieve recovery through proper treatment as a result of medical advancement. “We should focus on precautionary measures and early diagnosis before reaching the disease advanced stages.”

He urged young Saudi men and women to set an important goal and work hard to achieve it. “We pin great hope on our ambitious youth,” he concluded.