BENGALURU: The city saw a swap transplant where two women donated their kidneys to each other’s husbands on Tuesday. It took the doctors more than three months to search for such patients with the help of their personal contacts.
Though the state sees a lot of such swap transplants where live organ donors look for a match, there is no ‘pooled donation registry’ as is the case in the US or the UK.
Dr Girish N, consultant nephrologist, Columbia Asia Hospital, said, “We had to ask nephrologists we knew across the state to see if they have a patient whose relative is a match. Unlike the US or the UK where at least 100 swap transplants happen (in a year), here there is no registry of live donors. We have one for cadaver, but not for life. Often people don’t find cadaveric donations.”
The entire process of successfully doing a swap transplant on Tuesday between the couples in Columbia Asia Hospital and Suguna Hospital took over nine months. “It is time-consuming and there are a lot of patients waiting. Any help in this regard is considered welcome and a registry will go a long way in doing more such transplants,” he said.
The doctor pointed out that a Mumbai-based NGO, Apex Kidney Foundation, had managed domino transplants where there are more than two donors and recipients involved, and if one donor withdraws the entire chain reaction falls apart.
“Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC), a government medical college in Gujarat, has done more than 150 swap transplants within the medical college, and these are just kidney transplants. We are lucky to have like-minded nephrologists in the state, hence we all feel the need to have a live donor registry,” he said.
Dr R Bhanumurthy, medical superintendent, KC General Hospital, is the chairman of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, which is approached for permission when organ donation is not between immediate family members. He told The New Indian Express, “We do not maintain the number of swap transplants that take place. However, like any other unrelated donation, both parties are called and we check if there is any force or monetary factors at play.”
What is a pooled or swap donor registry?
A swap donor registry would have details of patient’s kin who are ready to donate an organ but cannot because of mismatch due to reasons like blood group incompatibility. The data of patients and donors will be pooled in the registry and those with the best match will be identified through an automated system. Mumbai-based Apex Kidney Foundation runs a swap donor transplantation registry.