Ram Manohar Lohia Institute to begin live kidney transplant from December 12

LUCKNOW: After months of waiting,

Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences

(RMLIMS) will undertake its first live

kidney transplant

on Monday, making it the third facility in Lucknow apart from Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) and King George's Medical University (KGMU) to be performing renal transplant.

The first transplant to take place on Monday is scheduled between a husband and wife duo from Barabanki where the wife is giving one of her two kidneys to the husband. The transplant unit getting operational will bring major relief to patients in long waiting lists at both SGPGIMS and KGMU.

"Finally live kidney transplant is going to take place after a delay of a few months. We have three urologists and one nephrologist who will take charge," informed Dr Deepak Malviya, director, RMLIMS.

Currently, SGPGIMS alone undertakes 120 to 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 patients in 2015 and 91 patients in August 2016.

The kidney transplant unit has been made on the third floor of the OPD building with 20 beds, out of which ten have been kept aside for transplant patients and ten for high dependency patients.

The basic requirements for a kidney transplant unit calls for a nephrology department with a dialysis unit and a fully functional surgical wing with at least two operation theaters to perform two operations simultaneously. This means one on the live donor and one on the patient as there should be no time lapse between the transplant.

For the facility to run perfectly, the separate kidney transplant unit with a separate air conditioning system is also an imperative look out. As these patients are immuno-compromised, the centralised air conditioning can carry the risk of circulating infection through air, which can be avoided by decentralising the air conditioning.