In a first of its kind, small bowel transplantation was successfully carried out by doctors in Kerala in first week of January. An intestinal transplant is considered as a last-resort treatment option for patients with intestinal failure, as in conditions like. Crohn's disease, after trauma, necrotizing enterocolitis, congenital malformation, small bowel syndrome, small bowel tumors such as Gardner's syndrome, etc. It  is a complex procedure requiring a highly skilled multidisciplinary transplant team. 

The transplantation surgery, lasting six hours, was performed on a 37-year-old woman who had undergone multiple small bowel resection surgeries during the last six years. From one month before transplant, she was in critical stage and the only option for her was transplantation.

 The normal length of the small bowel is 5-6 meters. A normal human being requires at least two meters of small bowel for survival. Patient had only 96 cm length of the small bowel. The patient's condition is reported to be stable and she has started taking normal diet. The transplanted small bowel will take about two months to gain all its normal functions.

Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation.Organ donation takes healthy organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another.

The transplantation was possible thanks to the decision of the family of a 38-year-old woman who was declared brain dead at another hospital following an accident. Her family gave consent to donate her heart, kidneys, liver, small bowel and two corneas.

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