Amid Covid surge, PGI’s nephrology wing working 24x7

LUCKNOW: Covid patients either with renal transplantation or on haemodialysis are at higher risk of mortality than those without it, said doctors at the Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).

“That’s why the haemodialysis (MHD) units in the Nephrology department of the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) have continued to work uninterrupted since March 2020, when the first Covid wave started,” said professor Narayan Prasad, the head of the department of Nephrology at SGPGIMS.

“We have maintained 273 haemodialysis patients either twice or thrice weekly. The department has provided 1200 sessions of dialysis in Rajdhani Covid Hospital (RCH) to Covid positive patients. We continued with renal transplantation, doing 45 renal transplantations in 2020 and this year again PGI performed 24 renal transplantations,” professor Prasad said.

“We never stopped regular maintenance haemodialysis (MHD) units and have provided 30,286 dialysis sessions in 2020. During the same period, we maintained 273 MHD patients either twice or thrice weekly. We have also provided 1200 sessions of dialysis in RCH as well,” he said.

“This year so far 9880 dialysis sessions have been provided to non-Covid and 274 sessions of haemodialysis to Covid positive patients at the designated Covid facilities. We have 16 session points, 12 in RCH 1 and 4 in RCH-2. We have also made provision of dialysis in the holding area for any Covid suspect patient awaiting RT-PCR report. Regular maintenance haemodialysis units with 55 dialysis stations function 24x7 for maintenance dialysis and emergency dialysis in non-Covid areas,” he said.

Prof RK Dhiman, SGPGIMS director said the institute provides the renal replacement services 24x7 for all patients – including those who test Covid positive.

“Since Covid patients with renal transplantation or on hemodialysis are at higher risk of mortality we provide dedicated beds for these patients in RCH. The mortality of Covid positive dialysis and renal transplant patients is lower than many of the western data of patients on dialysis as well as with renal transplantation,” he added.