Transplant surgery at KGMU yet to take off

LUCKNOW: With 17 livers and around two dozen kidneys retrieved, King George’s Medical University (KGMU) has proved its worth in organ retrieval but its own programme for transplant operations is yet to take off, as some infrastructure, including equipment, is still needed. Since transplant surgery is a high precision procedure, it cannot be started till everything is perfect, down to the last detail

The department of human organ transplant at KGMU, which was established to benefit a large number of patients suffering from end stage organ failure in the state, started functioning in August 2013.

KGMU has the largest trauma centre in the state. It also has one of the highest incidence of brain dead patients in the country.

This huge potential is being tapped by the department and has led to successful donations of liver, kidney and corneas, with the organs being delivered to needy patients in various hospitals in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere in the country.

But all the organs retrieved at KGMU are being sent outside the medical university to other institutions such as PGI.

Though KGMU has a tie-up with PGI to cater to those transplant patients as well who are registered at KGMU, organs are also sent out of Uttar Pradesh because KGMU is yet to start transplant operations on its campus.

“We have permission to retrieve organs such as kidney and also to transplant it but permission to transplant liver is still awaited,” said KGMU vice chancellor Prof Ravi Kant. Also, the infrastructure needs to be augmented.

However, a state of the art kidney transplantation unit has been established at Centenary hospital and patients with end stage renal disease, if suitable for transplant, are entered on a cadaveric waiting list. Authorities say soon the wait will be over and transplant operations will become a regular feature along with retrieval.