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Doctors in California earlier this month conducted the world’s first successful bladder transplant. The eight hour procedure involved taking a kidney and bladder from an organ donor, transplanting them into the patient, and connecting them. But what do we know about the operation which gives hope to millions around the world?
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The first-ever successful bladder transplant has been done.
Doctors in California earlier this month successfully pulled off the procedure – which could give millions of people around the world new hope.
The eight hour procedure involved taking a kidney and bladder from an organ donor and transplanting them into the patient.
It may sound simple, but it’s not.
The two doctors involved had been working on and refining this procedure for years.
But what do we know? How was it done exactly?
Let’s take a closer look:
What do we know?
The procedure was performed by two surgeons – Dr Inderbir Gill from the University of Southern California Institute of Urology, and Dr Nima Nassiri of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Institute of Urgology.
The patient was Oscar Larrainzar – a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder and both kidneys after being treated for a rare form of cancer.
“I was a ticking time bomb,” Larrainzar, a husband and father of four, was quoted as saying by The New York Times. To the dry early bug first and silver ladder “But now I have hope.”
As per Science Alert, Larrainzar had been on dialysis for seven years.
While a normal bladder can hold 700 millilitres of fluid, Larrainzar’s could only hold 30 millilitres.
As per The Times of India, until now patients who have undergone bladder removal surgery had to have part of their intestine repurposed to help them pass urine.
Gill said the problem with that is that bowel tissue is “inherently contaminated” by bacteria.
Transplanting that to the “inherently sterile” urinary tract results in complications in around 80 per cent of patients, he added.
As per The Guardian, this can also result in digestion issues.
The difficulty with bladder transplants thus far has been due to the complex blood vessel system it uses within the abdomen, as per ScienceAlert.com.
How was it done exactly?
As per Indian Express, the doctors transplanted both a kidney and bladder from a donor – in that order – to Larrainzar.
They then linked the kidney to the new bladder using a new technique they had formulated.
As per ScienceAlert, Dr Gill and Dr Nassiri had been practising this surgery for over for years.
Dr Gill and Nassiri used robot-assisted transplants on dead donors that were still on ventilators.
While the entire surgery lasted a gruelling eight hours, the results were instantaneous.
“The kidney immediately made a large volume of urine, and the patient’s kidney function improved immediately,” Nassiri told Science Alert. “There was no need for any dialysis after surgery, and the urine drained properly into the new bladder.”
Larrainzar after the surgery could pee normally – the first time he had done so in over seven years.
As per The New York Times, the doctors say they will first perform the procedure in four more patients.
They will then attempt a larger clinical trial.
This is because patients must take immunosuppressants to stop the body rejecting organs, as per ScienceAlert.com.
The Since these are risky, organ donation is the last option.
“This surgery is a historic moment in medicine and stands to impact how we manage carefully selected patients with highly symptomatic ’terminal’ bladders that are no longer functioning,” Gill told ScienceAlert.com.
“Transplantation is a lifesaving and life-enhancing treatment option for many conditions affecting major organs, and now the bladder can be added to the list.”
Dr Gill, speaking to The New York Times, called the development “the realisation of a dream” for treating thousands of patients.
“There is no question: A potential door has been opened for these people that did not exist earlier,” Gill, the chairman of the urology department at USC, said.
“This first attempt at bladder transplantation has been over four years in the making,” Nassiri was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “For the appropriately selected patient, it is exciting to be able to offer a new potential option.”
With inputs from agencies