Hyderabad:A 26-month-long clinical study by the South Asian Liver Institute has confirmed the prevalence of multi-drug antimicrobial resistance (MDR) among liver-transplant patients, including those from Tier-2 towns.
The retrospective analysis, conducted by the institute’s liver-transplant team, examined 67 liver-surgery patients treated over two and a half years in a semi-rural setting and found a 24-per cent incidence of bacterial infections, predominantly caused by gram-negative organisms. The patients included from many states across India.
Of the 46 transplant recipients studied, 16 patients were found to have bacterial infections, despite both donors and recipients being evaluated.
Prof. Dr Tom Cherian, head of transplant surgery and the study’s primary investigator, said the findings were deeply concerning. “Ninety-four percent of the positive cases were resistant to first- and second-line antibiotics. A smaller portion were resistant even to third-line drugs, and a few showed resistance to last-resort antibiotics like oxazolidinones,” he said.
Dr Cherian added that nine of the infected patients (56 per cent) tested positive before surgery, indicating they walked into the hospital with MDR organisms in their bloodstream.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Dr Cherian added that infections remained the number one cause of death among liver-transplant patients nationwide. “We receive patients from several states. When we conducted cultures before and after transplant, we learnt that around 30 per cent developed infections during the procedure. But because we knew their infection status early and used the correct antibiotics promptly, we were able to keep complications under control,” he said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
