First ‘swap kidney’ transplant in Hyderabad:
HYDERABAD, NOV. 28:
The first ever swap kidney transplant in Andhra Pradesh was conducted on two couples belonging to different communities at CARE Hospital in Hyderabad.
Seemingly straight out of a Bollywood flick, two wives donated their kidneys to each other’s husbands.
Swap transplant, also known as paired donor exchange, takes place when two kidney recipients essentially swap kidneys from willing donors. Currently, less than 10 such exchanges take place across hospitals in India.
In this case, the two recipients, M.M. Baig and Devidas, who were undergoing dialysis at the hospital, were to receive kidneys from their respective wives. However, this could not happen due to mis-match of blood groups.
“Hence, we planned to swap the donors. Baig’s wife was planned as donor to Devidas and vice-versa. After we suggested to the couples and got their consent, it took us more than a month to get the required permission from the government,” Vikranth Reddy, Head of the Department of Nephrology, told media persons here today.
The entire operation involved four surgeries to be conducted at four operation theatres at the same time, requiring significant logistics efforts and medical preparedness. Getting the required approval also took time as Andhra Pradesh does not have the provision that allows for saw kidney transplant, hence requiring special permission from the Authorisation Committee.
Doctors feel that swap kidney transplants could be one way to overcome the current organ shortage in India. “About four to five lakh people are admitted for dialysis every year to Indian hospital, out of which only one per cent or 4-5,000, under go transplant mainly due to legal hurdles and organ shortage,” Reddy said.
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