According to Lin, the NTUH team assisted Viet Duc University Hospital in Hanoi with the transplant operation last November and the recipient, a 47-year-old woman, was discharged from the hospital last week after going through a dangerous postoperative period of rejection and infection.

The woman, identified only by her family name Nguyen, still has to receive immunoglobulin treatment and take anti-virus and anti-rejection medication for a year, Lin said.

It marked the first time NTUH, one of Taiwan's most prestigious medical institutions, has collaborated with Vietnam in a liver transplant operation, Lin said, adding that the hospital has helped with kidney and bone marrow transplants in Vietnam in the past.

Noting that the Vietnamese hospital attached great importance to the latest case, Lin recalled that Viet Duc University Hospital Superintendent Nguyen Tien Quyet traveled to Taipei last October, bringing with him the patient's health records and disease history.

The NTUH sent a team to Vietnam Nov. 25 in preparation for the operation, which took place three days later. The team, led by Lee Po-heng, director of the NTUH's Department of Surgery, included several of the hospital's most experienced liver transplant experts, Lin said.

To ensure the surgery's success, the Vietnamese hospital renewed its liver resection device and other surgical equipment, while the NTUH purchased on the Vietnamese hospital's behalf immunoglobulin that is not available in Vietnam.

The 11 hour operation proceeded generally smoothly, despite some unexpected episodes due to inadequate facilities and language barriers, Lee said.

As Vietnam lacks legislation concerning organ harvesting from the brain dead, only live donor organ transplants have been performed there. Vietnamese hospitals have conducted live donor renal transplants and child liver transplants. According to Lee, none of the child recipients have survived.

The first-ever adult liver transplant drew much attention in Vietnam, Lee said, adding that many medical professionals converged inside or outside the operating room to get a glimpse of the operation.

The patient had fallen victim to cirrhosis and had a small cancerous growth on her liver that made conventional surgery impossible. Her nephew donated a section of liver for the transplant operation.

According to Lee, hepatitis B is prevalent in Vietnam, resulting in a high incidence of chronic cirrhosis and liver cancer, just like the situation Taiwan experienced 20 to 30 years ago.

"While Vietnam still lags far behind Taiwan in organ transplant technology, we have noticed the Vietnamese medical community's strong attempts to catch up, " Lee said, adding that Viet Duc University Hospital, for instance, has sent its surgeons to receive training at NTUH and Kaohsiung's Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in southern Taiwan.

For the latest cooperative liver transplant, Lee said, the Vietnamese health departm ent provided 5 million Vietnamese dong in subsidies, while the Vietnamese hospital spent about US$40,000. The operation cost a total of 150 million dong, or about NT$2 million (US$61,728).

As many Taiwanese businessmen have established footholds in Vietnam, they expect the Taiwan government to join private investors in setting up a biomedical park in Vietnam.According to a preliminary plan, the park will have pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing plants and a hospital.

"The NTUH has been commissioned to come up with a blueprint for the hospital to be established in the park, " Lin said, adding that the transplant proves that Taiwan's biomedical industry could become another star export item following the information technology industry.