For a patient needing kidney transplant, a matched donor is the first requirement. Patients who do not have a matched or compatible donor in the family and with a long waiting list for cadaver donor organs, this news has come as a big boon. For the first time in the country, a hospital in Hyderabad has successfully performed kidney transplant between non-matching blood groups.
Kamineni Hospitals doctors transplanted the kidney of an A+ donor (father) to an O+ patient (son) which was earlier believed to be impossible.
Kamineni Hospitals CEO B. Shashidhar Reddy informed that a team of doctors comprising nephrologist Dr. Kamal Kiran and transplant surgeon Dr.Srinivas Guttha performed the operation recently using immuno absorption technique. It is known as "ABO Incompatible Kidney Transplantation" .
Presently, out of an estimated two to three lakh patients suffering from kidney failure, only about 3,000 go through kidney transplantation. The ABO kidney transplant is a rare procedure, but if protocols were implemented to transplant across blood-group barriers, it is estimated that an additional 1,500 live donor kidney transplants could be performed each year in India marking a new chapter in treating renal failure.
The cost of this transplant is more as compared to the conventional matched transplant.