Bengaluru sees South India's 1st swap organ transplant

Coordinating for over six months, doctors at the Columbia Asia Hospital in Hebbal and the Suguna Hospital in Rajajinagar accomplished a major task on Tuesday, conducting possibly South India's first swap organ transplant.

The traffic police established a green corridor between the hospitals to facilitate the swap organ transplant.

The surgery last over three-and-a-half hours, Dr Ajith K Huilgol told DH. According to a source, the organ swap was done between two male patients from Bengaluru. The surgery at Hebbal started around 5:30 am and went on until 9 am. Doctors from both the hospitals were positioned at both the ends for effective coordination.

"While the wife of a patient at the Columbia Asia Hospital donated her kidney to a patient at the Suguna Hospital, the wife of the patient at Suguna donated a kidney to the patient at Columbia Asia. We have been working on this for close to six months and finally today we have successfully operated upon the patients. Both the donors and recipients have been doing well," Dr Huilgol said. As the blood profiles of both the donors were matched, doctors decided to arrange for the organ swap between both the hospitals.

Executing the organ transplant, doctors at the Columbia Asia Hospital were in for surprise when they discovered that the donor’ kidney from Rajajinagar has two ureters (the duct through which urine passes from kidney to the bladder). "None of the tests had revealed the two ureters and it was a surprise when we got the organs. Finally, we had to adapt my own technique which I had presented a few years ago in one of the global seminars to carry out the difficult surgery," Dr Huilgol said.