Turkish doctors perform world’s first 8-way paired liver transplant

Türkiye has achieved a world first in liver transplantation after a medical team at Inönü University’s Liver Transplant Institute successfully performed an eight-way paired liver transplant, Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said.

In a statement shared on social media on Tuesday, Memişoğlu praised the achievement the team, describing the procedure as a landmark accomplishment in medical history.

“Another world first has been achieved at our Inönü University Liver Transplant Institute,” Memişoğlu said. “Prof. Dr. Sezai Yılmaz and his valuable team have written their names in golden letters in the history of medicine with the eight-way paired liver transplant they performed.”

The minister said the breakthrough further reinforces Türkiye’s reputation in the field of liver transplantation and reflects the expertise developed at İnönü University over the years.

According to Memişoğlu, approximately 1,800 liver transplants are performed annually in Türkiye, with more than 300 of those procedures carried out at the institute.

He said the success demonstrates the country’s growing capabilities in advanced transplant medicine and highlights the contribution of Turkish scientists and healthcare professionals to global medical progress.

“I wholeheartedly congratulate all of our scientists who contributed to this great achievement,” Memişoğlu said. “It is thanks to experts trained at Inönü University that Türkiye has become a globally recognized brand in liver transplantation.”

Paired liver transplantation involves matching donors and recipients across multiple incompatible donor-recipient pairs, enabling patients who would otherwise be unable to receive a transplant from their intended donor to undergo the procedure through a coordinated exchange system.

Unlike a standard living-donor liver transplant, where a donor gives part of their liver directly to a compatible recipient, an 8-way paired liver transplant involves multiple donor-recipient pairs who are unable to proceed with transplantation because of blood type or other medical incompatibilities.

In this procedure, doctors match each donor with a compatible recipient from another pair, creating a chain of exchanges that allows all patients to receive a transplant. The 8-way paired transplant performed in Türkiye connected 8 donor-recipient pairs in a single coordinated operation, enabling eight patients to receive compatible liver donations despite being unable to receive organs from their original donors.

The procedure is considered highly complex because it requires extensive compatibility testing and the coordination of multiple surgical teams and operations.

DAILYSABAH