For the first time surgeons at AIIMS Delhi performed a dual kidney transplant in a 51-year-old woman on 22 December, 2023. Now the patient is doing well, says the doctor.
The surgery was performed by the Department of Surgical Disciplines and the Department of Nephrology of AIIMS, Delhi in association with the Organ Retrieval Banking Organization (ORBO). The patient is a 51-year-old woman, who had both kidney failure and she was undergoing dialysis for nearly 5 years. She was transplanted with the kidneys of a 78-year-old woman, who was declared brain dead.
Dr. Asuri Krishna, Additional Professor of Surgery at AIIMS, Delhi said that the donor is a 78-year-old woman. She suffered a severe head injury after a fall from the stairs. She was admitted to AIIMS Trauma Center on December 19, where she was declared brain dead and her family gave consent for the Organ donation.
The 51- year-old patient, who was on dialysis, needed a kidney. The 78-year-old donor single kidney is not sufficient for the patient, due to her extreme age. So, the doctors decided to use both kidneys of the donor. During the transplant surgery, the two kidneys of the donor were placed in a heterotropic manner without removing the patient’s own kidneys. Now, the patient carries four kidneys.
Dr. Asuri Krishna said that due to the donor’s extreme age, her single kidney was not adequate for the patient, who was on dialysis. They had to clamp the major artery and vein of the patient to join the first kidney and then place the second kidney below it. He also said that the patient is doing well, she is off hemodialysis, and her kidney is functioning normally and the doctors are monitoring her.
Dr. Krishna said that the main challenge he encountered during the procedure was placing two kidneys right side of the patient. The surgery was performed on December 22, 2023, by the transplant team of the surgery unit Dr. Asuri Krishan, Dr. Sushant Soren and Professor V Seenu.
Dr. Asuri added that both the kidneys were placed on the right side of the recipient one on top of the other and the recipient had an uneventful recovery with both kidneys functioning well following the surgery. He also said this one-of-a-kind surgery is a great example of using the limited resources to bridge the huge demand and supply gap that exists for organs in India by utilizing the organs from an elderly donor which generally would have been rejected.
This was a collective effort between the Department of Surgical Disciplines and the Department of Nephrology which are lead by Professor Dipankar Bhowmik and Sandeep Mahajan and Organ Retrieval Banking Organization (ORBO) Professor Arti Vij and transplant coordinator Balram.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)