Fudan University's Children's Hospital used a single liver to extend the lives of a senior citizen and a 4-month-old child - the nation's youngest person ever to receive a liver transplant, hospital officials said yesterday.

Both patients were reported to be in stable condition.

The young girl, a Zhejiang Province native, was born with a closure of the ducts that drain bile from the liver. Though surgery was performed on her when she was two months old, her condition deteriorated and a liver transplant became her last hope.

Doctors said the transplant surgery was risky and required a high degree of delicacy, as the patient's organs and blood vessels are very small and weak.

"She weighs only 5.4 kilograms and her total blood inventory is 0.4 to 0.5 liters," said Luo Weifen, a hospital spokeswoman. "Her liver arteries and bile ducts are only 0.2 centimeters wide."

The Tuesday night operation was a relay event involving doctors at the children's hospital and Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital, which split the donated organ and operated on the adult, a liver cancer patient in her 60s.

(Shanghai Daily April 1, 2005)