After a third renal transplant surgery, a 41-year-old resident of Chennai now has five kidney’s in his body and is doing well. The patient, who underwent a third renal transplant surgery at the Madras Mission Hospital, earlier had two transplanted kidneys in his body along with his original two kidneys. This is one of the rarest of procedures conducted on a patient, which is not common even globally.
The man suffering from severe hypertension underwent a third renal transplant on July 10 at the Madras Medical Mission and exactly after a month during his first check-up post the operation, the doctors found that he was keeping well, and his transplanted kidney was functioning properly.
The transplant reportedly turned into a huge task as there was not much space inside his body for the doctors to work on. Dr S Saravanan, who took charge of the third kidney transplant, made the attempt after the patient had already undergone two failed transplant procedures.
Earlier to that, both the surgeries on the patient had failed due to hypertension. Meanwhile, the team of specialists also had to be careful as the patient had recently undergone triple bypass surgery post been diagnosed with coronary artery disease.
“His first and second transplant failed due to his uncontrolled hypertension. To complicate things more, he underwent triple bypass surgery to repair blocks in the heart in March at our hospital,”said Dr. Sarvana.
After much discussion, the best option doctors could think of was a transplant. Initially, the patient had two inborn kidneys and two donor kidneys in his body. Following which doctors had to find space for a fifth one.
Giving details on the fifth kidney,Dr.Saravanann stated that transplant surgeons do not remove the dysfunctional kidneys from the patient but have to make space because of the risk of bleeding that takes place.
Looking back at his medical records, In year 1994, when the patient was 14, his kidneys failed, prompting his first transplant that lasted nine years. The second was in 2005 and was functional for 12 years. But, for the next four years, he had to be strapped to a dialysis machine nearly three times a week.
In patients with chronic kidney disorder, kidneys stop filtering out body waste through urine. As the disease progresses, the kidney’s function is taken over by dialysis machines. “His first and second transplant failed due to his uncontrolled hypertension. To complicate things more, he underwent a triple bypass surgery to repair blocks in the heart in March at our hospital,” said transplant surgeon Dr S Saravanan.
