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Prof. Mohamed Rela [MBBS, MS, FRCS (Edinburgh), DSc (Honoris causa)]

Experience

40+ Years

Specialization

Liver Transplant & HPB Surgery

Hospital

Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai

International Patient Helpdesk

+91 99995 99955

info@pnyhealthcare.com

Profile compiled & verified by PNY Healthcare medical team · Last updated 14 November 2026

About Prof. Mohamed Rela

Prof. Mohamed Rela is the Chairman & Managing Director of Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre (Rela Hospital), Chromepet, Chennai. The hospital is named after him; he founded it in 2018.
He is a world-renowned liver transplant surgeon with one of the largest experiences in the field: over 6,500 liver transplant surgeries.
He has more than 40 years of medical experience since his MBBS (1982) and over three decades in liver transplantation. In more than 25 years at King's College Hospital, London, he personally performed over 2,500 liver transplants in adults and children, and he became Professor of Liver Surgery and Transplantation in 2005.
In 2009 he started the Institute of Liver Disease & Transplantation at Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Chennai, which became the largest liver transplant programme in India, performing over 300 liver transplants a year.
He holds a Guinness World Record for a successful liver transplant on a five-day-old baby girl (listed in 2000).
He has published over 800 papers in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 73) and over 30 book chapters, including the chapter on the Pancreas in Gray's Anatomy (41st edition) and the chapter on Liver Transplantation in Bailey & Love's Short Practice of Surgery (28th edition).
He pioneered split liver transplantation (one donor liver shared by two patients) and has led the world in auxiliary and mono-segment liver transplantation for newborn babies.
He is Past President of the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS, 2022-23) and of the Liver Transplantation Society of India (LTSI, 2024), and Councillor-at-large (South/Southeast Asia) of The Transplantation Society.
He was named one of the 20 Most Innovative Paediatric Surgeons Alive Today by Top Masters in Healthcare Administration (2013).

Areas of Expertise:

Liver transplantation (living donor and deceased donor)
Paediatric and neonatal liver transplantation
Split, auxiliary and mono-segment liver transplantation
Complex hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery
Robotic liver surgery
Pancreatic transplantation

Procedures:

Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT)
Deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT)
Paediatric and neonatal liver transplantation
Split liver transplantation

List of Treatments

Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT)
Deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT)
Paediatric and neonatal liver transplantation
Split liver transplantation
Auxiliary liver transplantation
Mono-segment liver transplantation
Robotic liver surgery
Liver resection (hepatectomy)
Complex hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery
Pancreatic transplantation
Surgery for abdominal trauma

Work Experience

Current: Chairman & Managing Director, Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai (September 2018 - present)
Professor of Liver Surgery and Transplantation, Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London, UK (2005 - present)
Chancellor, Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research, India
Course Director, Post-Doctoral Fellowship in HPB Surgery & Liver Transplantation, Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research

Previous experience:

Director, Institute of Liver Disease and Transplantation, Gleneagles Global Hospitals Group (Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai), August 2009 - August 2018
Lead Clinician for Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, King's College Hospital, London, 2004 - 2009
Consultant Surgeon / Honorary Senior Lecturer, Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London, June 1994 - 2005
Senior Registrar in Liver Transplant Surgery, King's College Hospital, London, May 1993 - May 1994
Registrar in Liver Transplant Surgery, King's College Hospital, London, January 1992 - April 1993
Registrar in General Surgery, Medway Hospital, Gillingham, Kent, UK, October 1990 - December 1991
Registrar in General and Vascular Surgery, Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, Merseyside, UK, February 1989 - September 1990
Senior House Officer, General Surgery and Urology, Oldham Royal Infirmary and Oldham District General Hospital, UK, August 1987 - January 1989

Professional roles:

Past President, International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS), 2022-23
Past President, Liver Transplantation Society of India (LTSI), 2024
Councillor-at-large, South/Southeast Asia, The Transplantation Society (TTS)
Affiliated Councillor & Past Chair, Paediatric Committee of the ILTS
Executive Council Member, International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Study Group
Founder & Trustee, National Foundation for Liver Research (NFLR)
Associate Editor, American Journal of Transplantation

Innovation:

I have published extensively in the area of clinical liver transplantation (over 160 peer reviewed articles). Throughout my period as a consultant surgeon I have concentrated on developing and practicing new surgical techniques in liver transplantation. The major drive for this has been shortage of donor organs particularly for small children. I have led the country in techniques such as Split liver transplantation, and led the world in performing Auxiliary liver transplantation and Mono-segment liver transplantation for transplantation in neonates.

Education & Training

MBBS - University of Madras, India, 1982
MS - University of Madras, India, 1987
FRCS - Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 1988
DSc (Honoris causa) - The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University, India, 2013
DSc (Honoris causa) - Saveetha University, India, 2016
DSc (Honoris causa) - Periyar Maniammai University, India, 2018

Memberships:

The Transplantation Society (TTS)
British Medical Association (BMA)
Royal Society of Medicine (RSM)
British Transplantation Society (BTS)
International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS)
Association of Upper GI Surgeons of Great Britain (AUGIS)
European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT)
British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL)
International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA)
Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL)
American Society of Transplantation (AST)

Awards & Recognition

Guinness World Record for a successful liver transplant on a five-day-old baby girl (2000)
Panchanan Chatterjee Oration and Gold Medal, Association of Surgeons of India (1996)
Recognised Teacher status and PhD Supervisor, University of London (2001)
Professor of Liver Surgery and Transplantation, King's College, University of London (2005)
Scroll of Honour and Medal, JIPMER, Pondicherry (2009)
Dr. Madhanagopal Oration and Medal, Madras Medical College (2010)
Dr. M.S. Ramakrishnan Memorial Endowment Oration, The CHILDS Trust Medical Research Foundation (2012)
Scroll of Honour, The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University (2012)
Dr. N. Zaman Oration, Association of Surgeons of India, Guwahati (2012)
Dr. N. Rangabashyam Oration, Madras Medical College (2013)
Named one of the 20 Most Innovative Paediatric Surgeons Alive Today, Top Masters in Healthcare Administration (2013)
Prof. S. Darwin Oration, Association of Surgeons of India (2016)
Dr. B. Krishnaraj Memorial Oration, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital (2017)
Dr. Nihal Markus Oration, South Asian Association for the Study of the Liver (SAASL) (2017)
Blumberg Oration, Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Bangladesh (2017)
Institute Day Oration, Madras Medical College (2018)
Dr. Madhanagopal Oration and Medal, Indian National Association for the Study of the Liver (2021)
Lifetime Achievement Award, Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), AHPICON 2024, Madurai (2024)

Publications

Rela M, Reddy MS. Pancreas. Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice, 41st Edition, Chapter 69 (Elsevier) (2015)
Rela M, Hakeem AR. Liver Transplantation. Bailey & Love's Short Practice of Surgery, 28th Edition
M Rela, ND Heaton, P Muiesan, KC Tan. A technique for hepatic artery anastomosis during orthotopic liver transplantation. Transplant Int. 1995; 8:244-24521. (1995)
M Rela, P Muiesan, P Andreani, P Gibbs, G Mieli-Vergani, AP Mowat and ND Heaton. Auxiliary liver transplantation for metabolic diseases. Transpl Proc. 1997; 29: 444-445 (1997)
M Rela, H Bonatti, P Muiesan, ND Heaton. Nonanatomical Reduction of Liver Allografts: A Promising Option for Neonates with Fulminant Hepatic Failure. Transpl Proc. 1997; 29: 446 (1997)
M Rela, V Vougas, P Muiesan, H Vilca Melendez, V Smyrniotis, J Karani, Roger Williams, N Heaton. Split liver transplantation: King's College Hospital experience. Ann Surg 1998; 227:282-8 (1998)
M Rela, ND Heaton. Split liver transplantation. Leading Article. British Journal of Surgery 1998; 85: 881-883 (1998)
M Rela, P Muiesan, H Vilca-Melendez A Dhawan, A Baker, G Mieli-Vergani, ND Heaton. Auxiliary orthotopic liver transplantation for Crigler Najjar Syndrome Type 1. Ann Surg 1999; 229:565-569 (1999)
P Srinivasan, P Muiesan, H Vilca Melendez, ND Heaton, M Rela. Monosegmental Liver Transplantation. Surgery 1999;126:10-12 (1999)
Deshpande RR, Bowles M, Vilca Melendez H, Srinivasan P, Girlanda R, Dhawan A, MieliVergani G, Muiesan P, Heaton N, Rela M. Results of split liver transplantation in children. Ann Surg. 2002; 236:248-53. (2002)
Deshpande RR, Heaton ND, Rela M. Surgical anatomy of segmental liver transplantation. Br J Surg. 2002 Sep;89(9):1078-88. (2002)
Review. Maguire D, Vilca-Melendez H, Heaton ND, Rela M. Is cholangiography required for ex situ splitting of cadaveric livers? Transpl Int. 2004 Jan;17(1):46-8. (2004)
Fusai G, Steinberg R, Prachalias A, Heaton ND, Spitz L, Rela M. Ex vivo liver surgery for extraadrenal pheochromocytoma. Pediatr Surg Int. 2006 Mar;22(3):282-5. (2006)
Tucker O, Prachalias A, Kane P, Rela M. Graft positioning at liver transplantation in situs inversus. Liver Transpl. 2006 Nov;12(11):1720-2. (2006)
Rela M, Battula N, Madanur M, Mieli-Vergani G, Dhawan A, Champion M, Raiman J, Heaton N. Auxiliary liver transplantation for propionic acidemia: a 10-year follow-up. Am J Transplant. 2007 Sep;7(9):2200-3. (2007)
Heaton N, Faraj W, Vilca Melendez H, Jassem W, Muiesan P, Mieli-Vergani G, Dhawan A, Rela M. Living related liver transplantation in children: A single centre experience. Accepted August 2007- BJS (2007)
Faraj W, Dar F, Bartlett A, Melendez HV, Marangoni G, Mukherji D, Vergani GM, Dhawan A, Heaton N, Rela M. Auxiliary liver transplantation for acute liver failure in children. Ann Surg. 2010 Feb;251(2):351-6 (2010)
Rela M, Bharathan A, Palaniappan K, Cherian PT, Reddy MS. Portal flow modulation in auxiliary partial orthotopic liver transplantation. Pediatr Transplant. 2015 May;19(3):255-60. (2015)
Govil S, Shanmugam NP, Reddy MS, Narasimhan G, Rela M. A metabolic chimera: Two defective genotypes make a normal phenotype. Liver Transpl. 2015 Nov;21(11):1453-4. (2015)
Lara Neves Souza, Rodrigo Bronze de Martino, Alberto Sanchez-Fueyo, Mohamed Rela, Anil Dhawan, John O'Grady, Nigel Heaton, Alberto Quaglia: Histopathology of 460 liver allografts removed at retransplantation: A shift in disease patterns over 27 years. Clinical Transplantation 02/2018; DOI:10.1111/ctr.13227 (2018)
Mohamed Rela, Naresh P. Shanmugham: Accessible Pediatric Liver Transplantation in India: A Long way to go. Indian pediatrics 11/2017; 54(11):911-912. DOI:10.1007/s13312-017-1180-5 (2017)

Associated Hospitals

Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai

Location

Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai: No. 7, CLC Works Road, Chromepet, Chennai

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Prof. Mohamed Rela practice?

Prof. Mohamed Rela practises at Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre (Rela Hospital), No. 7, CLC Works Road, Chromepet, Chennai, where he is the Chairman & Managing Director. He is also Professor of Liver Surgery and Transplantation at the Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London.

What does Prof. Mohamed Rela specialise in?

Liver transplantation (living donor and deceased donor), paediatric and neonatal liver transplantation, split/auxiliary/mono-segment liver transplantation, and complex hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery.

Where can a patient meet or consult Prof. Mohamed Rela?

Patients can consult him at Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chromepet, Chennai. PNY Healthcare assists international patients with appointments, medical visa and travel.

What are the OPD timings of Prof. Mohamed Rela?

OPD timings are not published by the hospital – please contact the PNY Healthcare helpdesk.

How many years of experience does Prof. Mohamed Rela have?

He has more than 40 years of medical experience and over three decades in liver transplantation, having performed over 6,500 liver transplant surgeries.