Representatives from Shanghai Renji Hospital and the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center in Manila gather in Shanghai to hold a dialogue on international medical collaboration on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Shanghai Renji Hospital said on Tuesday that by collaborating with the Chinese General Hospital and Medical Center in Manila, the Philippines, it has successfully performed its first liver transplant on a Filipino child at the medical institution in Shanghai.

The liver transplant was performed in mid-February, and the 2-year-old boy's physiological indicators are steadily improving. He is expected to be discharged and return to the Philippines later this week, according to Renji Hospital.

On Monday, representatives from the two hospitals gathered in Shanghai and held a dialogue on international medical collaboration, discussing the outcomes and prospects of medical cooperation between the two institutions.

The boy, nicknamed Nieco, suffered from congenital biliary atresia, which led to liver cirrhosis. He had previously experienced gastrointestinal bleeding 12 times within six months, putting his life in imminent danger. Due to limited medical resources locally in the Philippines, Nieco's family was plunged into despair.

Thanks to the medical cooperation mechanism across the two nations, Renji Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the hospital in Manila swiftly assembled a joint expert team.

Nieco's father volunteered to donate a portion of his liver. Xia Qiang, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Renji Hospital, performed the living donor liver transplant surgery. The 2-year-old was given a new lease on life following the six-hour operation.

Xia Qiang, president of Shanghai Renji Hospital, who successfully performed the living donor liver transplant surgery on the 2-year-old Filipino child, monitors his condition. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

"Renji Hospital not only gave my child a new life, but also made us feel the warmth of home," said the child's father, who preferred not to be named.

As the world's largest pediatric liver transplant center, Renji Hospital has completed over 3,800 surgeries of this kind, with postoperative survival rate of the minor patients leading internationally, said Xia.

"We have always upheld the notion that 'medicine knows no borders' and have been at the forefront of promoting the clinical application and popularization of Chinese liver transplant technology in Southeast Asia," he said.

In 2019, Renji Hospital partnered with the University of Malaya Medical Centre in Malaysia to establish an overseas office and kick off an international training program for pediatric living donor liver transplantation technology.

Over the past decade, the Renji team has not only systematically trained more than 50 liver transplant specialists from Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia among others, but also jointly completed Malaysia's first pediatric living donor liver transplant surgery. Their endeavors have saved a total of 55 critically ill foreign children.

The success of this first pediatric liver transplant in the Philippines signified an upgrade in China-Philippines medical cooperation from technology export to system co-construction and is of great significance especially when the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year, Xia said.

By Zhou Wenting in Shanghai | chinadaily.com.cn 

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202503/11/WS67cff2dfa310c240449da2a9_1.html