CMC conducts ‘swap’ kidney transplant

The exchange of organs took place between a couple and two sisters aged 23 and 28 years

In what could be a ray of hope for patients waiting for renal transplant with no matched donors, surgeons at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, conducted a ‘swap kidney transplant’ on two women recipients on Wednesday.

As four operation theatres functioned simultaneously, the kidneys of a 36-year-old recipient’s husband and another’s sibling were swapped and transplanted by a team of surgeons at the hospital. In a swap transplant, two patients, who have incompatible family donors, can get the organs transplanted after swapping.

The exchange that took place between a couple and two sisters is not the first swap transplant at CMC. Santosh Varughese, professor of Nephrology, CMC, said that two such swap kidney transplants had been conducted at the hospital earlier.

Wednesday’s swap transplant involved a 35-year-old man and his wife and two sisters aged 28 and 23 years. The husband could not donate his kidney to his wife due to mismatch of blood group. Similar was the case with the sisters. So the man’s kidney was transplanted on the 23-year-old girl, while her elder sister donated the kidney to his wife.

The swap transplant was done after extensive pre-operative work up carried out by the nephrology team, Antony Devasia, head, Department of Urology, CMC, said. “We had to start the procedure on both the donors simultaneously. So, we had four operation theatres running at the same time so that the kidneys can be transplanted immediately. The faster the kidneys are transplanted, the better outcome. We removed the kidneys in a laparoscopic procedure, cooled the organs, and took to the adjacent theatres for transplantation,” he explained.

Recipients fine

Four senior urologists and the team from the urology department were involved in the transplant that began in the morning. Dr. Devasia added that the two recipients were doing well following the transplantation.

“Such patients with unmatched donors are at a crossroads and swap transplant provides them an avenue for transplantation,” he said.

The procedure was taken up after getting due approval from appropriate authorisation committees of the State governments of the patients.