UF physician to help develop transplant program overseas

A University of Florida College of Medicine pediatric surgeon is assisting efforts to establish a children’s liver transplant program in Vietnam, where this service does not exist.

Max R. Langham Jr., M.D., a professor of surgery and expert on liver transplants in children, traveled to Hanoi recently to meet with Professor Nguyen Thanh Liem, director of the city’s pediatric hospital, and other officials. Nguyen approached Langham last year requesting advice and assistance to start the program after hearing him speak about his research on the subject at a conference in Japan.

In Vietnam, a country of 78 million people, children who need liver transplants either die or go to other countries, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, to receive them, said Langham, who also is the chief of the division of pediatric surgery.

The number of children in Vietnam needing liver transplants is unknown, but an estimated 75-150 children each year would require them if the prevalence in that country mirrored that of the United States.

More than half the liver transplants done in America are in babies under 2 years old.

Transplants are needed to treat a variety of liver diseases, including hepatitis and other infections, cancer and most commonly, biliary atresia, a condition in which bile builds up in the livers of newborns, causing scarring and death within a year.

During his week-long visit, Langham performed a variety of operations and taught Vietnamese surgeons and physicians the basics of setting up a liver transplant program. He also gathered information about the capabilities, standards and financial resources available to build a transplant program, which Nguyen hopes to get under way by 2003.

Langham, who grew up as the Vietnam War raged, viewed the experience as an opportunity to travel to the country on a peaceful mission to build cooperation between the countries.

“Health care is one of the universal needs that people have. We are fortunate in the United States because we are near the apex in most aspects of health care,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that people overseas need it less or are less deserving. This is an opportunity to make a real difference.”