Are you aware that kidney transplants can be done even if the blood group of the donor and patient do not match? Well, as per a technology perfected by the Tokyo Women’s Medical University Hospital and put in practice by MIOT International is getting popular in the country.
Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, Rajan Ravichandran, Director, MIOT Institute of Nephrology, said that the hospital was using this ABO Incompatible Kidney Transplantation (commonly known as Kidney Transplant Across Blood Groups) technique for every one in six transplants.
Kazunari Tanabe, Professor and Chairman - Department of Urology, Kidney Center, Graduate School of Medicine and Director of Tokyo Women’s Medical University Hospital, said they had started using the technique in 1989 but at that time they had to remove the spleen since effective drugs were not available. “One in every three transplants are done using this technique. Now the costs are almost the same since we no longer go for plasma exchange,” he said. Dr. Tanabe is in India to conduct workshops about the procedure.
Dr. Ravichandran explained: “We started the procedure in 2010. The antibodies in the blood are removed and though the risk of getting infections is higher in the first two weeks post surgery, it is still worth it because the wait for donor matches or cadavers is quite long,” he said.
In the country, approximately around 1 lakh persons are on peritoneal dialysis but only about 5,000 kidney transplants are done in a year. This satisfies less than 5% of the requirement, Dr. Ravichandran said adding that this technique will help, especially in case of spouses or parents willing to donate.
More expensive
However, the only drawbacks in the ABO Incompatible Kidney Transplantation technique were that it is more expensive than regular transplants and not many know about it. “We are now working with other institutions to popularise it so that more patients can benefit from it,” he added. A regular transplant costs ₹5 lakh and this one ₹8 to 9 lakh.
