Best Paediatric Liver Transplant Surgeon In India

In paediatric cases, liver transplantation is always the last option. Doctors always try their best to find alternatives instead of surgery. However, when the case gets complicated and there is no other option, then the best option is to prefer a surgeon who can perform this complicated surgical procedure with precision, skill, and expertise. Dr. Mohammed Rela, of Rela Hospital, is your best bet for paediatric liver surgery cases. He is one of the very few liver transplantation specialists who is world renowned for the number of successful liver transplantation outcomes in paediatric cases. Dr. Rela is considered the benchmark when it comes to liver transplantation and hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgery. Dr. Rela has garnered his reputation for being the best paediatric liver transplant surgeon in India as well as in the world. He has many achievements to his credit and many successful surgeries to his repertoire. In the field of paediatric liver transplant, Dr. Rela has established a strong position for himself after the successful liver transplantation surgery on a 5-day old baby. The surgery garnered him a place in Guinness Book of World Records. It is a feat that has become a beacon of hope for parents who have children facing serious liver problems.

Beginning his prolific career, Dr. Rela worked in various hospitals in the United Kingdom before joining London’s King’s College Hospital in 1991, where he continues to be the Professor of liver surgery. He is regarded as guru in the areas of liver transplantation like auxiliary transplantation, split liver transplantation techniques and live donor liver transplantation. A career spanning over 3 decades, Dr. Rela has performed over 4500 liver transplants. Dr. Rela is also an expert hepatobiliary surgeon, performing Whipple’s surgery for pancreatic cancer, liver resections for Cholangiocarcinoma and HCC resection in Cirrhotic patients. His successes in paediatric cases is exemplary. His research interest is in the field of clinical liver transplantation, translational studies into liver regeneration and liver preservation. He has over 600 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, he has been honoured with Doctorate of Science degrees from three universities, recognising his service to healthcare. He has also been voted as one of the 20

Dr. Rela’s list of paediatric achievements further includes:

• In March 1999, he carried out the first living related liver transplant on 18-month-old Luke Bettelley who was suffering acute liver failure in the UK.
• In June 2003, he successfully performed a liver transplant for a four-and-a-half-year-old girl from Ahmedabad, Pranali Bhat, suffering from a terminal stage liver disease.
• In August 2004, a team led by him has successfully conducted the liver transplantation for a five- year-old Pakistani girl, Batul Hasan.
• In September 2009, a team led by him successfully performed the split liver transplantation (first of its kind in India). The liver was split during the retrieval operation into a smaller left lobe for transplanting a young girl and a larger right lobe for transplanting an older woman with end stage liver disease.

Apart from his achievements in the paediatric liver transplant cases, in 2011, Dr. envisaged the “Master Class in Liver Disease’ (MCLD) series as a means to deliver high quality teaching in liver disease and transplantation.

With ideas to dedicate his life toward helping paediatric liver patients find answers for their problems, Dr. Rela started the Rela Hospital in Chennai, India, where he set up a successful Living Donor Liver Transplant program performing over 250 liver transplants a year as well as an exclusive cell dedicated toward paediatric liver transplant patients – one of its kind in India. He is also the catalyst in starting liver transplants in tier 2 cities in Tamil Nadu, providing access to such high-end medical facilities to paediatric patients from far flung places. Rela Hospital, under the auspices of Dr. Rela, is acknowledged to be an international medical facility and a quaternary care hospital dedicated to fostering and responding to the needs of a diverse set of patients. The hospital is committed to being an internationally significant paediatric liver care centre with the state-of- the- art infrastructure with the best liver transplant surgeon in India at its helm.