RML to conduct live renal transplants

LUCKNOW: This Monday, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) will undertake its first live kidney transplant, becoming the third facility in Lucknow to do so.
Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and King George’s Medical University (KGMU) are the other two city institutes to be performing renal transplant.
Monday’s transplant is scheduled between a Barabanki couple where the wife is donating one of her kidneys to the husband.
The transplant unit becoming operational would bring relief to patients in long waiting lists at both SGPGIMS and KGMU. “We have three urologists and one nephrologist who will take charge,” said RMLIMS director Dr Deepak Malviya.
Currently, SGPGIMS alone undertakes 120-130 live and cadaveric (donor is deceased) renal transplants each year with almost 100 patients on the waiting list. KGMU, on the other hand, had a waiting list of 16 patients in May 2014 that increased to 50 in 2015 and 91 in August 2016.
The kidney transplant unit has been made on the third floor of the OPD building with 20 beds. Ten of those have been put aside for transplant patients and the rest for high dependency patients.
The basic requirement for a kidney transplant unit calls for a nephrology department with a dialysis unit and a functional surgical wing with at least two operation theatres to perform two operations simultaneously; one each on the donor and the patient .
For the facility to run perfectly, a separate air conditioning system is also imperative. As these patients are immuno-compromised, the centralised air conditioning can carry the risk of circulating infection through air, which can be avoided by de-centralising the air conditioning.