Six hours of Global Attentions
Six hours of Global Attentions
I’m Shozo Mori from the Dokkyo Medical University Hospital. We have 26 departments and 1,200 beds. In the Department of General Surgery, there are approximately 30 surgeons, and the department is divided into two parts. I am in the junior faculty of the second team, which is specialized in transplantation.
What is the purpose of your visit to Korea?
Let me start with how liver transplant is performed in Japan. In my country, more than 99% of liver transplant cases are from living donors. Any transplantation from a brain dead person was illegal, because brain death was not accepted even with the approval from the person’s family. But in 2010 the definition of brain death has legally changed. And since then the Amended Organ Transplantation Law has took effect to allow transplant from brain death individuals on the condition of the approval from the family. Currently, less than 10 medical centers run organ donation programs from brain death in Japan.
We are one of the medical centers that only perform liver donor transplants in my country. In 2010, I visited the Mount Sinai Medical Center as a Clinical Research fellow to learn more about liver transplant from brain dead individuals. But because we don’t do the living donor transplant back home, the knowledge I earned at the Mount Sinai was no use - at least for now. I thought it would be more important to study deeper into living donor transplant for the sake of the competitiveness of myself as well as my hospital. One of my advisors at the NYC Medical Center, Professor Hyun-kuk Lee at Ewha Hospital, recommended the Seoul National University Hospital, and, luckily, I could start the 1-year training course from March 2011, thanks to Professor Sun-hoi Kim, who visited for lecturing in October.
After Japan’s Earlier Success in Liver Donor Transplant
Every year, 500 to 600 cases of liver donor transplant are conducted in Japan. It saw success in this field earlier than Korea did, and certainly more hospitals practice the procedures in this country. But the number of cases are not significantly rising or dropping. It is pretty much stable. For example, the Kyoto University Hospital did this surgery for 120 cases back in 2000, but more recently, they are doing it for about 60 to 70 cases. On the contrary, the number in Korea has been steadily increasing since its first surgery in 1994. At present, 800 cases or so are being done annually in Korea, which makes it one of the leading countries in the world.
Additionally, after one Japanese organ donor died in 2002, the liver donor transplant was held back for a short period of time. One donor died in the US as well in 2001. As far as I know there were one or two more deaths last year. However, all of the transplant surgeries have been successful in Korea and the donors and beneficiaries have remained healthy. This could be a testament that Korea is in the number one place in this field of the liver donor transplant surgery.
Six hours of Global Attentions
The most surprising part of this visit so far was the duration of the surgeries. In the one I observed, it took six hours for skin to skin, which refers to the entire process from the incision to the suture. We take at least 15 hours in Japan. When starting the surgery in the morning, we usually finish past midnight. This is pretty common at other Japanese hospitals. The Seoul National University Hospital invited medical professionals from foreign countries in celebration of its 1000th successful surgery in 2011. And many of them, who were from Japan, Europe and the US, were astonished with this duration. I think this is the world record.
In addition, its patients’ prognosis is good. This is the results of the combination of the technology, dedication and teamwork. The SNUH should be proud.
I am grateful and honored to have an opportunity to learn at one of the world class hospitals like the SNUH. Thank you for everyone involved.