Asahi: Liver transplant mortality rate high
A professor has been suspended and two supervisors reprimanded after more than 40 percent of patients who received liver transplants from living donors died within a year of surgery at a hospital in Hachioji, western Tokyo, hospital officials said Tuesday. Officials at Tokyo Medical University Hachioji Medical Center, citing a report by a review panel of outside experts, said 23 of 52 patients who received liver transplants between October 2000 and April 2007, died of complications within a year, a death rate of 44.2 percent. The report criticized the hospital for "problems with surgical techniques and post-operative management." A hospital official denied the deaths were the result of malpractice...more...