Imbalanced diet, irregular lifestyle cause of liver ailments

Many of the patients from Bengal are found to have picked liver ailments due to lack of balanced diet and irregular lifestyle, said world renowned liver transplant surgeon Prof M Rela during his visit to the city on Wednesday.

While addressing a gathering at a city hotel Prof Rela said lifestyle disorder is a major cause that contributes to the liver diseases in patients. He stressed on the importance of taking balanced diet which can prevent the liver ailments. He also talked about the necessity of spreading awareness about the liver transplantation in the country. One of the pioneers in liver transplant surgery in the country, Prof Rela said that major challenges to conduct the liver transplantation in India is the lack of awareness about the organ donation, lack of skilled professionals, affordability of patients and lack of well equipped hospitals to conduct such surgeries.

Due to a want of infrastructure it fails to boost the confidence of patients requiring liver transplantation. He also mentioned that the survival rate of patients undergoing liver transplantation is as high as 90 per cent if the patients are admitted to the hospital in stable condition.

As the cost of the liver transplantation is much higher in private hospitals, Prof Rela urged various state governments to come forward to provide subsidy to the poor patients requiring transplantation. 

It is difficult for many patients to spend nearly Rs 30 lakh for liver transplantation. The expenditure could be slashed up to Rs 15 lakh if the various state governments conduct the liver transplantation in the state-run hospitals in a subsidised rate. He said that great deal of work have been done in West Bengal.

India is the home to 11 per cent of the world’s patients affected with chronic Hepatitis B with the number of deaths from liver cancer or cirrhosis each year ranging between 100,000 and 200,000. It has been estimated that about 2 lakh people are diagnosed with end stage liver disease each year and about 0.02 per cent population need liver transplant every year.