In a notable achievement for the state's medical fraternity, a swap renal transplant, also called paired kidney exchange has been conducted for the first time in Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow's SGPGIMS. This critical procedure was performed by the doctors of the Department of Nephrology and the Department of Urology and Renal Transplantation on Tuesday. As a part of this process, the donor kidney of one pair is exchanged with another one, to make it compatible for successful transplantation.

Incompatible relative donors led to the exchange procedure

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Notably, the Tissue and Human Organ Transplantation Act, amendment and rule of 2014 legalised the swap transplantation procedure. As per the medical professionals, a 53-year-old woman from Azamgarh was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease when she came to SGPGIMS in 2018. Later, she underwent regular dialysis and her husband stepped ahead to donate one kidney to his wife.

Upon detailed investigation, it was found out that woman's body had antibodies, resistant to her husband's kidney. Further, the crossmatch turned out to be positive, confirming the fact that she could not get her husband's kidney. Besides, she did not have any other people in her family, who could be prospective donors. A similar case involved a 47-year-old man, who too had very high strength DSA against her wife's kidney, making it impossible for transplantation.

Transplant surgery conducted under leadership of Prof Aneesh Srivastava

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In view of the visible issues, the nephrology team started looking at other viable options for the lifesaving procedure. The doctors consulted with the urology team and it was decided to move ahead with the swap renal transplantation plan. Thereby, a crossmatch test was conducted after swapping the donors and the first results came out to be favourable.

While the two individuals were found to be non-receptible towards the kidneys of their relatives, swapping the donors could reap desired outcomes. The situation was explained to both pairs and they agreed to conduct this procedure. Given the compatibility of the donors, the Hospital Based Authorisation committee also gave its approval for the process.

Notably, antigen bead test is done in a few public centres and the renal lab at SGPGIMS is one of them. The transplant surgery was conducted under the leadership of Prof Aneesh Srivastava, who is the professor of transplant surgery and Head of the Department of Urology and renal transplantation.

Swap kidney donation comes with added benefits and better success rate

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With the collaborative efforts of the doctors at nephrology, urology and anaesthesia departments, the successful transplantation procedure ensured healthy life for critically ill patients.

It is noteworthy that the kidney paired donation is a cost-effective process, which does not require any desensitization technique and the immunosuppression is much lower. Additionally, it cuts short the waiting time with better graft and patient survival rates and it has a better chance of success compared to transplantation done after desensitization.

- With inputs from IANS