What we do
In my department, we do liver transplant and liver procedures and some difficult pancreatic tumour cases. We are experienced in liver transplant for more than twenty years and we have done over a thousand liver transplants in this hospital.
We do complicated cases and also train people all around the world. We are number one in liver transplant in the West and in Europe we are rated high because of our statistics.
We have strict rules for liver donation in Turkey; it has to be the relation of the person who needs the liver that can donate. Interestingly, people are getting more enlightened so when we match a good donor and a recipient, we go further to do the transplant.
Survival rates
The risk for the person who donates is low but we have to be very careful and gradually go step by step in the procedure. We do our best to train people from all over the world. You have to choose a good recipient and a good donor to ensure a successful procedure.
Last year, 2012, we had a survival rate of 93 percent and in 2011, we had a survival rate of 96 percent. We have the best survival rate across the board. Even though the scores are very good, we still want to get to 100% survival rate. We would be ever willing to treat patients from Nigeria and all other countries too.
Causes of liver failure
The major cause of liver failure in Turkey is hepatitis B. We are an endemic country of hepatitis B, about 60% of the liver cases we have are caused by hepatitis B but in the last couple of years, things are changing. We have started vaccinating all the newly-born babies 20 years ago but alcoholics and hepatitis C have also been on the increase, uncontrolled diabetes can affect the liver, there can also be liver insufficiency and fatty liver (steatosis).
Awareness
The awareness level of liver disease is quite low but we are constantly in the forefront, educating people on the dangers involved. Several years ago, it wasn’t so; now people are asking questions like “should I lose weight to care for my liver?” and so on. It is likely to see more liver diseases because of the eating habits of people and also hepatitis B and C are gradually rising up. In 2050 in America according to statistics, if they continue eating unhealthy, more than fifty percent of them will need a liver transplant because of Fatty liver (steatosis) which can lead to liver cancer.
What to do
Get vaccinated for hepatitis B and C; you have to ensure the equipments used for you even at the dentist’s are clean. In your sexual relationships you must be very careful. Be true to your partner and stay with your partner, a promiscuous person is open to hepatitis C.
You have to get rid of the virus, get rid of toxic material like alcohol, drink in moderation, perhaps once a week or thereabout, if you drink alcohol everyday then your liver is gone.
You also need to be very careful with what you are eating, you shouldn’t be overweight and if you are diabetic, you must have it under control and watch your sugar level, engage in exercise and avoid eating food that is fatty.
There are diseases you cannot do anything about like genetic diseases and metabolic disorders. Example of a metabolic disorder is when your body is attacking your liver, you cannot do anything about that but you must be sensitive to what your body is saying, listen to your body because when you do, you can enjoy a longer life span.
Liver cancer
It is one of the biggest cancers in the world now and it is spreading fast. Before, it was the 7th but two years ago, it became the 5th in the world. All the risk factors for liver cancer that I mentioned earlier must not be ignored. If Liver cancer is detected quickly, it can be totally cured so I advise people to go for medical check-up but sadly, most people present their cases late, 50 percent come in at the late hour when there is almost nothing that can be done about it.
Symptoms
The liver knows how to keep itself away from obvious symptoms so when it starts giving you symptoms, it is usually too late. What you can do is if you are at a certain age, or you take alcohol a lot, you are not faithful to your partner, you are exposed to toxic materials, some antibiotics, or mushroom poisoning, genetic disorder etc, you have to go for check-up, the earlier it is detected, the
