Fortis Hospital Mohali successfully conducted three kidney transplants wherein the blood groups of kidney donors and recipients were incompatible.
Detailing media persons about the nitty-gritty of three successfully conducted surgeries, surgical director of the incompatible kidney program at Fortis Mohali Dr Priyadarshi Ranjan said the three incompatible kidney transplants in a row have given new lease of life to the patients.Flanked by the transplant nephrologists Dr HJS Gill and Dr Amit Sharma, Dr Ranjan introduced all the three patients and their donors to the media, who have been discharged from the hospital and are living like a routine normal kidney transplant recipient.
The patients Om Prakash, Santosh Kumari and Saroj have been gifted with new life, which was earlier deemed impossible for years.For Om Prakash, kidney problems were a fact of life. He developed kidney failure three years ago due to high blood pressure and was subsequently pushed down to dialysis.“When I was advised a kidney transplant there was no one available with a compatible blood group in my family who could donate me kidney," said Om Prakash. “You lose so many hours of your life when you are dependent on a dialysis machine. It gives you a chance to live, but you are tied to it and to dietary restrictions," Om said.
Saroj and Santosh were also going through the same agonies. All of them had O blood group and did not have a blood group matching donor. Dr Ranjan took up the challenge and conducted surgeries using the technique meant for those having incompatible kidneys.Surgeries were conducted around a month ago and all three incompatible transplanted patients are back to their homes recuperating after the major surgery.Dr Ranjan, who is officially trained at Incompatible Kidney transplant Center at Johns Hopkins, USA and is the only certified Kidney Transplant Surgeon in country to undertake these highly complex incompatible Kidney Transplants, said India has just started to take on these highly specialized kidney transplant surgeries, whereas in developed centers of world, it has become routine.
He added that until now, a transplant patient could only receive an organ from someone with compatible blood type. An organ from an incompatible blood type would be perceived as foreign and vulnerable to attack by the recipient's natural antibodies.“Now, through a process of immune conditioning, recipient is able to receive kidney from donor of different blood type,” said Dr Ranjan. This new procedure is currently being provided at a limited number of transplant centers in the country.
What is meant by incompatible transplants?
Transplants have always required an exact blood match to have a chance of working. There are four blood types A, B, AB, and O. Type A can match with A or O, type B can match with B or O and AB can match with AB, A, B, or O. But type O can only match with O."If you receive a transplant of a different blood type, your body will recognize it as foreign and destroy it," Dr Ranjan said. In 1989, Japanese scientists began working on A-B-O Incompatible transplants. In this procedure they take antibodies out of plasma and replace plasma with a different blood type."