LaCardio performs the first liver autotransplant in Colombia

The Cardioinfantil Foundation (LaCardio) announced a historic advance for Colombian medicine by successfully carrying out the first liver autotransplant of the country. This highly complex procedure offers new hope to patients with liver tumors previously considered unresectable.

The doctor Jairo Riveratransplant surgeon and leader of the intervention, explained that autotransplantation, technically known as liver resectionex situ with autotransplantation, consisted of a complex sequence of steps:

• Complete removal of the patient’s liver.
• Cooling of the organ.
• Surgical work outside the body (ex situ) to resect the tumor and reconstruct the affected blood vessels.
• Reimplantation of the disease-free organ in the same patient.

“In this type of surgery, the liver is completely removed, work is done outside the body to eliminate the tumor and reconstruct the compromised vessels, and then it is reimplanted. It is a procedure that requires highly specialized equipment,” said Dr. Rivera.

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Millimeter Precision and Consolidated Trajectory

The intervention extended ten hours and required exhaustive planning that integrated experts in transplants, hepatobiliary surgery, anesthesiology, perfusion, cardiovascular surgery and radiology. In addition, technology was used three-dimensional reconstructionwhich was key to mapping the location and extent of the tumor with millimeter precision.

This achievement is significant, as it is the first liver autotransplant performed in Colombia and one of the few reported in all of Latin America.

“This type of intervention can only be performed in institutions with a consolidated track record in hepatobiliary surgery and living donor transplants. It was not an experiment, it was the result of decades of experience and preparation,” the surgeon highlighted. The success of the procedure is based on the experience of LaCardio, an institution that has performed more than 2,000 transplants in the last 25 years.

Favorable Evolution and Outlook

Dr. Rivera pointed out that the patient is progressing favorably. “It is expected that in the coming days he will be able to return to his country along with his family, with a new chance at life thanks to a procedure that in other scenarios would have been impossible,” he added.

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According to the specialist, each phase of the process was developed by an interdisciplinary team committed to clinical excellence, patient safety and innovation.

“It was an enormous challenge, but we knew that, if it could be done anywhere, it was here. LaCardio has the infrastructure, human talent and commitment necessary to take Colombian medicine to the next level,” Rivera concluded.

With more than two decades of experience in liver, kidney, heart, lung and pancreas transplants, LaCardio has established itself as a regional leader in highly complex medicine, uniting science, technology and humanity.