Rare renal transplant by Global Hospitals surgeons

A third kidney transplant on any individual is surgically challenging because of a dearth of space for the new kidney besides which vascular and ureteric anastomosis is not technically easy. This was the observation made by Dr GC Malakondaiah, Urologist and Transplant Surgeon at the city-based Gleneagles Global Hospitals.

He was speaking to the media, along with Dr G Sridhar, Consultant and Chief Nephrologist, while presenting 52-year-old Surinder Kumar Sahoo, who became the first person from south India to have undergone a kidney transplant thrice and continues to lead a healthy and normal life. The pioneering efforts of the hospital surgeons achieved the medical miracle.

Dr Sridhar observed, “It’s not easy to perform a third transplant, since the existing graft cannot be removed and additional cavity has to be created to place the new organ.” According to Dr K Ravindranath, Chairman of Gleneagles Global Hospitals Group, “our kidney transplant program is one of the largest in India that has been made possible by several pioneering contributions from our qualified surgeons, including combined heart & kidney transplant, sequential liver and kidney transplants, simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplants and several uncommon kidney transplants."

Visibly thankful to the team of doctors, Sahoo, whose first transplant was when he was 28 years old, said that his confidence in the abilities of the surgeons at Global was never in doubt. He said that although he spent approximately Rs 15 lakh for the transplants, he felt freshly rejuvenated since the third transplant four years ago. The surgeons who conducted third renal transplant successfully on Sahoo explained that this was more cost-effective than dialysis.