New Liver Testing Process Comes to St. Vincent’s University Hospital

14/10/2026

Thanks to joint funding from St. Vincent’s Healthcare Foundation and the HSE Spark Innovation Fund, a new procedure for liver surgery has began at St. Vincent’s University Hospital. “Liver Remnant Function Scintigraphy” is a test that can be used before a patient undergoes liver surgery to remove disease or tumours to show the strength and capacity of the remaining parts of the liver. So, teams can predict the functionality of the liver after surgery, not just the size of it.

The first patient has already taken the test, which is carried out through an injection of a small amount of radioactivity that is traced through the liver in real-time.

Whilst giving thanks for funding of this new development, Mr. John Hammond, HPB & Liver Transplantation Surgeon said, “We hope this makes a big difference in risk prediction and treatment planning for patients being evaluated for major liver resection”. The team will collect data over the coming months, to share the real impact of this investment, but in the meantime, we thank our donors for helping make this exciting advance possible.

Image from the new software being used to assist the liver surgery team.