BENGALURU: A 15-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man have undergone paediatric kidney transplant at Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru through a two-way donor swap after blood group incompatibility prevented their family members from donating the organ directly.
Both patients had willing family donors, but the blood group mismatch made direct transplantation unsuitable. Using Alliance for Paired Donation software, the hospital identified compatible donor-recipient combinations, enabling the two families to exchange donors.
Under the arrangement, the teenager received a kidney from the adult patient’s family donor, while the 21-year-old received a kidney from the teenager’s family donor.
The procedure required months of planning and coordination, with four operating theatres functioning simultaneously. Four anaesthetists and four transplant surgical teams participated, supported by infectious disease specialists.
Dr Arun Kumar N, senior consultant in nephrology and renal transplant at Aster CMI Hospital, said the software helped identify suitable matches and coordinated efforts across medical teams enabled the simultaneous procedures.
Kidney-paired donation allows donor-recipient pairs to exchange donors when direct transplantation is not possible because of blood group or tissue incompatibility.