Kidney transplant waiting time at PGIMER reduced

According to director of PGIMER Vivek Lal the hospital has successfully completed 154 transplant surgeries this year so far, with a projected target of reaching 350 by the end of December.

The waiting duration for kidney transplant at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh has been significantly reduced from one year to two and a half months. Due to the shortage of organ donors, over 3,000 patients are currently in need of this critical life-saving procedure.

The waiting duration for kidney transplant at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh has been significantly reduced from one year to two and a half months. (Shutterstock)

Earlier the transplant procedure was done out only at the renal department but from this year these transplants are also being carried out at urology department. According to director of PGIMER Vivek Lal the hospital has successfully completed 154 transplant surgeries this year so far, with a projected target of reaching 350 by the end of December. In the previous week, nine transplant procedures were conducted, and additional nine are anticipated to take place in the upcoming week. He also stated that the waiting period for transplants has been shortened to a mere two-and-a-half months, down from one year.

Earlier the transplant procedure was done out only at the renal department but from this year these transplants are also being carried out at urology department. According to director of PGIMER Vivek Lal the hospital has successfully completed 154 transplant surgeries this year so far, with a projected target of reaching 350 by the end of December. In the previous week, nine transplant procedures were conducted, and additional nine are anticipated to take place in the upcoming week. He also stated that the waiting period for transplants has been shortened to a mere two-and-a-half months, down from one year.There are two types of organ donation: living organ donation and deceased (cadaver) organ donation. Living organ donation involves retrieving organs from a healthy living person and transplanting them into a patient suffering from organ failure. On the other hand, deceased organ donation refers to pledging organs for donation after death.

The director highlighted that there is a higher prevalence of live kidney transplants compared to cadaveric transplants at PGIMER. He also stated that PGIMER is the leading public sector hospital in organ transplant. The institute also celebrated 50 years of renal transplant on June 21.

PGIMER conducted its first kidney transplant on June 21,1973 and till date PGIMER has accomplished over 4700 renal transplants including both live and deceased, thereby, saving precious lives.

In 2020, a total of 34 kidney transplants were performed at PGIMER. This number increased to 41 in 2021, and further rose to 78 in the year 2022.

PGIMER became the pioneering public sector hospital to perform transplants after cardiac death in 2011. 27 renal transplants have been carried out using organs from cardiac death donors till date.

Additionally, the department initiated simultaneous Pancreas Kidney Transplant (SPKT) in December 2014, successfully completing 40 procedures to date. Adding to their accomplishments, the department has also performed Simultaneous Liver Kidney Transplant (SLKT) with three successful cases thus far.