Challenges in nursing care in achieving a successful outcome to a liver transplant on a 2-year old child with life threatening genetic condition

Abstract

Liver Transplantation is successfully done for liver failure and liver cancer in selected patients. Liver transplantation for metabolic disorders due to genetic defect is rare and done in children mostly. When the disorder is severe and causes life threatening complications, they need to be done early, sometimes even less than a month after birth. The challenges
in our case were that it was done for a metabolic disorder – Citrullinemia (urea cycle disorder), in a very small child (<10 kg). The urea cycle is a sequence of chemical reactions that takes place in the liver cells. These reactions process excess nitrogen that is generated
when protein is used by the body. The excess nitrogen is used to make a compound called urea, which is excreted in urine.