April 2, Novartis national liver transplant demonstration center was formally established in our hospital. As China's first batch and Shanghai's first liver transplant technology training demonstration base, the center will focus on improving the quality of life of organ transplant patients, and comprehensively creating domestic first-class transplant demonstration center with a comprehensive training system through advanced teaching facilities, standardized surgical procedures that covered technical, ethical, legal and others. Dean Weiping Li and Vice President Daxiang Wen attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. More than 50 experts in the field of transplantation from major hospitals across the country attended the meeting.

According to Direct of Department of Liver Surgery of Renji Hospital, Professor Qiang Xia, "Liver transplantation is currently one of the world's most surgical technologies demanding, the most sophisticatedly operating, the most difficult to complete surgeries. To complete a successful liver transplant surgery and achieve the clinical effects of long-term survival in patients, many hurdles are all needed to be overcome, including rejection, infection, patient’s adapt to the new organ, etc. With respect to the cadaveric donor liver transplant surgery, the living donor liver transplant surgery is more complex. A living donor liver transplant surgery is equivalent to two, in which one is donor liver excision surgery, and the other is a new liver implantation surgery. The inside diameters of blood vessels and bile ducts between donor and recipient are frequently mismatched, and sometimes multi-vessels and bile ducts are needed to be rebuilt because of anatomic variations. The surgeons need to design individualized vessels and bile ducts reconstruction programs for each surgery, which put forward higher requirements for the overall technological levels and clinical experience of the entire transplant team."

As one of the leading liver transplant centers, the annual surgical volume of liver transplantation in Department of Liver Surgery of Renji Hospital has ranked the first in Shanghai for eight consecutive years, and also the first in the country for four consecutive years since 2011. The annual surgical volume of pediatric living donor liver transplantation has been the first in the world for four consecutive years since 2011. The long-term survival of patients after liver transplantation has reached the international advanced level. The establishment of Novartis national liver transplant demonstration center, can not only promote regular sharing and exchange of surgical technology and management experience in liver transplantation among domestic transplant centers, together with the development of liver transplant technology and long-term management concepts, but accelerate the development of liver transplantation in China to strengthen cooperation with the international advanced liver transplant centers, benefiting more Chinese liver transplant patients.

It is noteworthy that the demonstration center not only concerns about the technical issues in liver transplant surgery, but also focuses on training of ethical review process, the legal procedures and other processes before the implementation of the operation. In the future, the center will focus on high-precision professional medical personnel training in the field of transplantation to realize the sharing of latest research achievements and advanced clinical experience. It will also strengthen personnel training in all aspects including donor assessment, legal documents sign, optimal immunosuppressant program development, processes from organ harvesting to surgery and postoperative management, and advanced transplantation techniques, etc. (Reporter Haoning Wang, Huiyun Yuan / Translator Weiwei Zhang)