Laparoscopic Kidney Transplantation

In a new study, a minimally invasive technique has been used to transplant kidneys into animals. Now surgeons from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, NY, USA) are planning to use this laparoscopic technique on human patients receiving donor organs from cadavers. Their research was reported at the 2001 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in New Orleans (LA, USA).

Although laparoscopy has been used for the surgical removal of kidneys from living donors, it has not previously been used for the actual transplantation of kidneys into organ recipients. The Mount Sinai surgeons believe that laparoscopy may result in faster recovery of renal transplant recipients, particularly obese patients and those who have scars from prior surgery. This is because the technique brings viewing instruments within a few millimeters of the suturing site, improving operative access. The technique may also reduce the chance of wound complications in patients with chronic renal failure.

The procedure being used is known as hand-assisted laparascopic surgery because it makes use of one, larger-than-usual incision that enables a surgeon to insert a hand into the operative area and guide placement of the organ. Connecting donor arteries and veins to blood vessels and attaching the ureter to the bladder are completed through a much smaller incision in the lower abdomen.

"Because the incision associated with the laparoscopic technique is smaller, patients may have less surgical trauma,” said Dr. Subhash Kini, a laparoscopic fellow at Mount Sinai. "There consequently may be shorter hospitalization and faster recovery.”




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