Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College on Tuesday said they successfully performed a kidney transplant on an 11-year-old Sultanpur boy who had been on dialysis.
Calling it a new milestone, the hospital said in a statement, “This is not only a first for Safdarjung Hospital, but also the first time that a paediatric renal transplant has been performed in any Central government hospital.”
Before the transplant procedure, the patient was undergoing dialysis treatment due to a birth defect in his kidneys. The boy had developed end-stage kidney disease due to a rare disorder known as bilateral hyper dysplastic kidneys, a condition where both kidneys are smaller than usual because they have not fully developed in the womb. His 35-year-old mother was the donor.
Detailing the patient’s medical history, Director Professor and Incharge, Paediatric Nephrology Dr Shobha Sharma, who led the paediatric team, during the surgery, said, “The condition was diagnosed about one and a half years back when the child was brought in a serious condition to the paediatrics department at Safdarjung Hospital and had to be revived after a cardiac arrest.”
Since then, he had been undergoing regular dialysis after being diagnosed with kidney failure and was under the care of the paediatric nephrology division, noted the hospital administration.
“Paediatric kidney transplant is a surgical challenge and differs from the adult transplant on various counts including the need to anastomose the donor kidney to the larger major vessels in the recipient and also the need to create space for the adult kidney to sit comfortably in the child’s body,” said Dr Pawan Vasudeva, Director Professor and Head of Urology and Renal Transplant, who led the surgical transplant team.
Sharing an update on the patient’s response, Dr. Vasudeva said the donor kidney has taken well, and the child’s kidney function has now normalised.
He added that the child has had an uneventful recovery, is off dialysis, and would be discharged soon.