In a series of surgeries
spaced over a week, doctors at Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre
(IKDRC) performed six kidney swaps as part of a domino kidney transplant
process involving six families. According to the centre, this is the first time
six non-simultaneous kidney swaps have been performed in the country. All the
patients are reportedly responding well to the transplants.
Interestingly, the
donor-recipient sets came from two Muslim families and four Hindu families,
confirming the belief that humanity and life transcends boundaries of religion.
Battling kidney failure for
two years, 18-year-old Shaktisinh Chauhan had lost the ability to stand on his
feet due to weakness, having lost more than 18kg due to his inability to eat.
Desperate, the Chauhan family from Gandhinagar had signed up with IKDRC in hope
for a kidney donor.
In a similar case, 40-year-old
Shankarlal Tejwani, a resident of Juhapura was diagnosed with kidney failure a
year ago. A side-effect of extremely high blood pressure, Tejwani’s state had
deteriorated to the extent that he would vomit even after drinking water. With
no option other than a kidney transplant, Tejwani too added his name to the
list of patients seeking a kidney transplant.
Hope for both the patients
came in the guise of kidneys donated by family members of two other kidney
patients, who too had opted for the transplant. The centre had matched and
signed up six donor patients for a marathon domino kidney swap transplant
session.
A CASE OF GIVE AND TAKE
Explaining the procedure,
Dr H L Trivedi, head of IKDRC, said, “A kidney transplant can be done only when
the blood and tissue of the recipient and donor match. In case of a domino
transplant system, a set of donors and recipients is lined up as per matching
types and a chain of swapping is set up till the last donor gives his/her
kidney to the first recipient in the chain.”
AMENDMENT IN ACT MADE IT
POSSIBLE
The domino kidney
transplant was facilitated after an amendment in the Transplantation of Human
Organs Act, 2011, that states a pair of donor and recipient who are near
relatives but whose organs do not medically match for transplant are permitted
to swap organs with another pair of such persons. In such a case, the relative
of the recipient will donate his or her organ to another recipient, and in
turn, the second person’s relative will donate their kidney back to the
first recipient.
The result: Chauhan’s
father Rajendra could donate his kidney to a patient identified as Shamsad,
while Tejwani’s wife Kareena could donate her kidney another patient named
Devram. “I gave my kidney to another recipient with a matching blood group and
in return, received a kidney for my husband. Even without knowing each other,
we supported each other,” said Kareena, confirming the idea that humanity can
transcend the boundaries of religion and caste.
While the youngest donor
was a 31-year-old wife, Chauhan was the youngest recipient at 18 years.
DOMINO TRANSPLANT INCREASES
MORTALITY RATE
According to Dr Trivedi,
the patients were admitted to IKDRC in the last week where a series of
operations were conducted in one week. Dr Pranjal Modi from the Department of
Urology and Transplantation who was part of the surgeries said, “The longer the
chain, the more helpful for patients. It will increase the mortality rate of
patients who are waiting for a kidney transplant.”
“We conducted four surgeries simultaneously for two kidney swaps each on the first and second day. On two other days, we performed two surgeries each day to swap a kidney,” said Dr Vivek Kute, who assisted in the surgeries.
“We conducted four surgeries simultaneously for two kidney swaps each on the first and second day. On two other days, we performed two surgeries each day to swap a kidney,” said Dr Vivek Kute, who assisted in the surgeries.
“In India, around 250
people per million suffer from kidney failure and require a transplant. The
domino kidney paired exchange can provide a new lease of life to hundreds of
patients,” said Trivedi.
While the concept of domino
kidney transplant is fairly common outside India, the process is picking up in
India, especially in the state. Till September 2015, IKDRC performed 53 kidney
swaps taking the total number of such surgeries since 2000 to 250.
A similar non-simultaneous
surgery had been performed in Mumbai earlier but the operations were performed
in three different hospitals, said Trivedi.
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