The Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday touted the efficacy of liver transplants for people with metabolic liver diseases, which include an array of different, sometimes rare, conditions that often lead to lifelong medication and meticulous dietary management.
“Metabolic liver diseases mainly involve patients whose liver is unable to sufficiently produce a certain type of enzyme to metabolize body waste because of genetic disorders, causing a number of nervous system and vascular conditions,” hospital director of surgery Lin Jen-kou (林楨國) told a news conference in Taipei.
Lin said that while some of the diseases can be managed with medications and special diets, others cannot and can cause irreversible damage to the body, which prompted the hospital’s rare condition center a few years ago to explore abnother approach that could eradicate the disease and improve patients’ quality of life.
Hospital Department of Pediatric Surgery physician Liu Chin-su (劉君恕) said the team then decided to opt for liver transplants and has since used the procedure to significantly improve the symptoms of 21 patients with metabolic liver diseases, with an overall success rate of 95 percent.
“Among them were three people with ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, a genetic disorder of the urea cycle that occurs in about one out of every 80,000 people; 10 cases with methylmalonic acidemia, an inherited illness that affects one out of every 50,000 people and in which the body is unable to properly process certain proteins; and one patient with the extremely rare disorder of homocystinuria,” Liu said.
Lin said the latter case is a 28-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳) who is the first documented Asian case in medical history of homocystinuria detected through newborn screening.
Homocystinuria is a rare inherited metabolic disorder caused by cystathionine beta synthase deficiency, which affects about one out of 500,000 men in Taiwan, Lin said.
Lin added that affected people can experience abnormal accumulation of homocysteine, detachment of the crystalline lens inside the eye, a sunken chest and mental disability.
“Chen had sought to control the disorder via medicines and stringent dietary management for the first 22 years of his life, but the approach not only greatly impeded his academic and job performances, but also failed to prevent him from developing dislocation of the crystalline lens, which meant he had to undergo two surgical procedures in 2000,” Lin said.
After Chen and his family learned that liver transplantation could put an end to his misery, Lin said he readily agreed to the idea and received a donated liver in November 2009.
Now, Chen has broken free of dependence on medicine and dietary control and is planning to open his own coffee shop, Lin said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
RSS