A surgery was performed by a city surgeon recently during which kidney of a donor was removed through the laparoscopic method and transplanted onto a receiver.
The usual nephrectomy (surgery to remove a kidney) is a major procedure on the donor, associated with pain and the donor needing more days of stay at the hospital after surgery and forced to stay away from his or her normal activity for a long time. But the laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, a minimally invasive surgery has a shorter recovery period and complications are few. “In addition the quality and function of the transplanted kidney are excellent”, senior consultant urologist and transplant surgeon of Visakha Urology Centre G. Ravindra Varma, who performed the procedure said. It is said to be the first such surgery to be performed in coastal AP.
In a laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, tiny incisions are used and the kidney is removed using a scope or camera and special miniaturised surgical instruments, he said while explaining the procedure. The kidney was freed using four ports and removed through an incision in the lower abdomen. The removed kidney was immediately placed in the recipient.
Results of graft survival are comparable to kidneys removed through the traditional open surgery. Patients are hospitalised approximately three days and return to normal activity almost three weeks earlier than those who have undergone the traditional open procedure. The patient who had undergone the surgery at the Sraddha Hospital in the city was discharged after responding well to the surgery.
