Aster MIMS becomes India's first hospital to complete 50 kidney swap transplants

Bengaluru: Aster MIMS Hospital has successful completed its 50th kidney swap transplant and has become the first hospital in the country to have achieved this feat. The first swap transplant at Aster MIMS was performed in 2012, and since then it has paved the way for other hospitals in the region to adopt this life-enhancing procedure.

The Aster MIMS Hospital, through its organ transplant program, seeks to address the acute shortage of organs by enlarging the pool of living donors who want to donate a kidney to a family member or friend but can't due to issues such as incompatible blood types.

The Ministry of Health's calculation states that the annual requirement for kidneys could range between 1-2 lakhs with a mere 6,000 transplants occurring in reality. Acute shortage of donors, coupled with the incompatibility of the kidney between the donor and recipient makes the situation even grimmer with dialysis being the only feasible option. That is until recently. With the advent of swap transplants, two or more people can exchange kidneys with each other with minimum risk and a high success rate.

Speaking on the achievement, Farhan Yasin, Regional Director, Aster Hospitals, Kerala and Oman said, "The success of swap transplant depends on the donors' generosity and mutual trust. The success of every transplant is a testament to patients' trust in our expert team of doctors, surgeons, and paramedics, who have collaboratively contributed to the success of every organ transplant performed in the hospital."

He further added, "MIMS Charitable Trust, the DM Foundation, and other individual donors have made the arrangements to provide low-cost kidney transplants for underprivileged patients and free kidney transplant surgeries for kids under 14 from poor families." Recently, the expert team of doctors from Aster MIMS, Calicut, did another complex 3-way SWAP transplant saving the lives of 3 people from Wayanad, Malappuram and Thrissur last month. One person from each family was suffering from End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), and with SWAP transplant the only option left, the medical experts without further delay planned and performed the transplants with utmost care.

These surgeries were conducted by an expert team from Aster MIMS Hospital including Dr Sajith Narayanan - Head, Nephrology; Dr Ismail NA - Senior Consultant, Nephrology; Dr Firoz Aziz- Senior Consultant, Nephrology; Dr Sreejesh B - Senior Consultant, Nephrology; Dr Thushara A - Specialist, Nephrology; Dr Ravikumar Karunakaran -Head, Urology; Dr Abhay Anand-Senior Consultant, Urology, Dr Surdas R - Senior Consultant, Urology; Dr Kishore - Head Anaesthesia.