Kidney in first ever robotic transplant, a woman’s heroism

Mangalore Today News Network

Nov 14, 2016: Ananya (name changed), a city-based homemaker with children to take care of and eager to save her husband from agony of undergoing dialysis once in two days, met doctors at YMCH with willingness to donate her kidney and a request for early discharge from hospital. She also had to support her family financially due to her husband’s ill health. This heroic gesture made Yenepoya Medical College here has become the first ever hospital in coastal Karnataka to do robotic donor nephrectomy.


The robotic kidney transplant team comprising of urologists Drs Mujeeburahiman, Altaf Khan, Nischith D’Souza and nephrologist Santhosh Pai decided to go for robotic donor nephrectomy in view of her request and advantages associated with the robotic surgery. Dr Mujeeburahiman said the robotic surgery is a procedure wherein operating surgeon sits on console near the operation table and controls the movement of instruments within the patient’s body.

With this technique, surgery becomes very precise and accurate. That is because of the 3D imaging, magnification of 10 times and dexterity of movements of robotic arm. Advantage to the patient is immense compared to that of a normal open donor nephrectomy, he said adding the donor will have minimal blood loss, small scar, less pain and more importantly he or she will be in a position to resume their duties within few days. Anita was discharged on the third day of the operation, he said.

Pointing that both ’Ananya’ and her husband, who is also discharged one and half month ago are doing well, he, said her husband, a rickshaw driver by profession is expected to resume his duty in a month or so. Hitherto, even the donor was required to remain in hospital for nearly 10 days post operation, he said. The new procedure in which kidney is extracted from a small sized opening just below the stomach, allows faster turnaround time.

The Yenepoya Research Centre has also started lymphocyte cross matching facility for the benefit of the transplant patients in Mangaluru which was until now available only in select cities. Earlier local patients had to go to other cities or their blood had to be sent there. Now since it is available in YRC, all hospitals in the city can send blood samples to YRC for cross matching. By providing this facility, cadaver transplants in the region have increased at a faster rate.