Shen Yali, from east China’s Jiangsu Province, was diagnosed as having Wilson’s disease, a congenital disease that is characterized by the inability to metabolize copper and is marked especially by cirrhotic changes in the liver and severe mental disorder.

The girl was admitted to the Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital at the end of December and doctors there believed the best way to save her would be transplanting part of the liver from a relative.

The operation, lasting about 14 hours, consisted of doctors removing the girl’s liver and replacing it with the part of her mother’s.

This operation was the first time Chinese doctors have successfully conducted such a procedure.

Liver transplants have proven to be effective therapy in dealing with a number of serious diseases, but are limited by a lack of liver donations.

Wang Xuehao, a professor in charge of the operation, said that the transplant of part of a living person’s liver might help expand the source of liver donations.

Donating part of the liver will not harm a person’s health because even one-fifth of the liver can maintain normal function, Wang said.

(Xinhua 01/25/2001)