A 61 year old male came to the emergency department of Alexis Hospital with right femur fracture. An Unusual finding during his pre-operative examination for the orthopedic surgery was that he was found to have Stage 5 renal failure which was completely asymptomatic. He had no prevailing history of diabetes, any other medical ailments.
Symptoms often don’t appear until the kidneys are badly damaged. It may only be diagnosed if you have a blood or urine test for another reason and the results show a possible problem with your kidneys. Soon after his orthopedic surgery, he was recommended dialysis under the supervision of Dr Nishant Deshpande, Nephrologist & Renal Transplant Physician at Alexis Hospital. He being the only bread earner in his family with young kids, the family insisted on a permanent solution to the medical issue helping them reduce their frequent hospital visits. Considering the family requirements, the team of doctors at Alexis offered Kidney transplant as the solution for longevity and better quality of life. Finding a donor for him was the biggest challenge as the deceased donor waiting list was long and couldn’t suffice to their urgency of transplant. His wife, of age 56 years was found to be the only donor. The challenge was that he had pre formed antibodies against HLA antigens of his wife. The team at Alexis took up this challenge of performing this critical kidney transplant with preformed HLA antibodies which is a highly sensitized transplant. In the human body, the proteins of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) antibodies and the ABO blood group system rapidly recognize the donated tissue as non –self or foreign to one’s body and a major cause of rejection when organ transplants are conducted which can lead to dismal results in kidney transplantation in particular.
Since the transplant had to be done at the earliest possible, Dr Nishant Deshpande started him on 4 sessions of plasmapheresis and the second report of anti HLA antibodies was within the acceptable limits for performing the transplant.
The kidney retrieval Surgery of his wife was also amongst the First in the region where the donor kidney was retrieved entirely by a Laparoscopic procedure. “This significantly reduces the pain and duration of hospital stay of the organ donor who is otherwise healthy” said Dr Juned Shaikh, Urologist at Alexis hospital who performed the kidney retrieval.
The Kidney transplant team at Alexis, led by Dr Sanjay Kolte (Renal Transplant Surgeon) along with Dr. Juned Shaikh (Urologist), Dr Nishant Deshpande (Nephrologist & Renal Transplant Physician), Dr Vishal Ramteke (Nephrologist & Renal Transplant Physician), Dr Rajvilas Narkhede (Laparoscopic Surgeon), Dr Ajay Patekar and Dr Dilip Wasnik as Anesthesiologist successfully performed the rare kidney transplant for a patient with pre-formed anti HLA (human leukocyte antigen) antibodies which are formed by the immune system when you are exposed to proteins that appear similar to tissue types. With this path breaking surgery, Alexis Hospital is emerging as one of the leading transplant centers in the region that can perform kidney transplant surgery even in high risk situations.
Dr Nishant Deshpande, Nephrologist and Renal Transplant Physician at Alexis Multispeciality hospital says “Graft rejections should be anticipated before -hand and prior preparatory desensitization therapy can be given to prevent such rejections and kidney transplants can be done in high risk cases too.”
“At Alexis Hospital we perform in-house serum tacrolimus levels & kidney biopsy with lowest TAT in Central India. Recently, apart from dialysis, SLED and plasmapheresis we have also started performing hemodiafiltration thereby providing comprehensive care for kidney patients under one roof. Alexis Hospital is committed to the cause of organ transplant and is well equipped for complicated, high risk surgeries which until now were only done in metro cities.‘’ said Dr Tushar Gawad , Medical Director, Alexis Multispeciality Hospital.
The family shares that, “We never imagined the requirement of such a high risk surgery after the normal fracture. Thanks to Alexis for offering the comfort of getting the transplant done within the city with the best outcomes. Our family owes the life we are living today to Alexis! “