BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- Guangdong Province will conduct liver transplants from living donors if suitable matches were found, a forum in Guangzhou was told Saturday.

    ¡°Liver transplants from living donors have many advantages in reducing the rate of post-surgical re-occurrence of liver diseases, reducing blood loss, preventing organ rejection and reducing side effects of medication,¡± Cai Changjie, deputy director of the liver transplant center at Zhongshan University, said.

    The forum was organized by the Guangdong Provincial Organ Transplant Center and the No. 3 Hospital Attached to Zhongshan University.

    ¡°A donor who has 75 percent of his or her liver removed can still have a normal life, and those who have half their liver removed will have their liver return to its original size in two or three years,¡± Cai said.

    Guangdong had conducted more than 800 liver transplants with 95 percent of the recipients being Hepatitis B virus carriers.

    The liver transplant surgical technology in China approached internationally advanced levels, said Chen Guihua, director of the No. 3 Hospital Attached to Zhongshan University. The 12-month survival rate of liver transplant patients in Guangdong had reached 85 to 90 percent while the three-year survival rate was 75 to 80 percent. The five-year survival rate was 70 percent.

    Statistics showed that Hepatitis B carriers in Guangdong accounted for 17 percent of the national total.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily)