There is a huge gap between and demand and availability of liver for transplant surgery.

Saigal said it's known that there is a huge shortage of donated organs in India because of which tens of thousands of people face a death threat every year. 'Swap transplant of kidney and liver can reduce this backlog up to 30 percent.'

S.V. Kotwal, a senior neurologist at the Rockland Hospital in New Delhi, said: 'Exchange donor programme is perfectly legal. It holds a lot of promise for future. This will help more people to live a normal life.'

Mukut Minz, head of the department of transplant surgery at the Post Graduate Institute Chandigarh, told IANS by phone: 'Yes, swap transplant is an important medium to tackle the organ donation. You cannot get swap transplant cases many often but I can say that this method augurs well for patients and their families.'

He said swap transplant may be new in India, but 'it is continuously growing in Korea and the US'. Minz and his team has done at least six swap kidney transplants.