The Hindu : New procedure will eliminate long wait for donor kidneys

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 25, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

New procedure will eliminate long wait for donor kidneys

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 24. City-based nephrologists hope to try out in a month a kidney transplantation procedure which does not require a donor's blood group to match with the recipient's.

The procedure, which necessitates removal of antibodies in the blood of the donor's kidney through Double Filtration Plasma Pheresis, has been adopted extensively in Japan with success, according to R. Ravichandran, director, Madras Institute of Nephrology. The institute, based at the Vijaya Health Centre, will introduce the procedure for its patients.

``The greatest advantage is that we no longer have to wait long periods for donor kidneys. With this process, relatives of the patient can donate a kidney even if they have a different blood group,'' Dr. Ravichandran said here yesterday. It would also enable the nephrologists to build a larger pool of donors.

The cost would go up only by Rs. 25,000-50,000 and the post-operative care regimen would be much the same as in the conventional procedure.

The Japanese nephrologists, Hiroshi Toma and Kazunari Tanabe, who have been using the procedure over the last 10 years, were present to explain the process. Dr. Tanabe, assistant professor, Tokyo Women's Medical College, said that by the double filtration procedure, antibodies were removed from the donor's kidney and with immunosuppressants, it was ensured that the body did not reject the organ.

It took a maximum of a week for the process to be completed and the kidney could then be transplanted.

The success of the transplantations done by him and Prof. Toma across blood groups matched the accomplishment of same blood group procedures.

The two nephrologists will address a workshop, organised by the Madras Institute of Nephrology in the city, on this procedure.

They will also share their expertise on nephron sparing surgeries for kidney tumour.

In this procedure, the kidney can be retained after removing only the tumour tissue, helping to maintain kidney function.

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