Kidney transplantation is a successful permanent solution for chronic kidney failure. In India, on an average, 3000 kidney transplantation surgeries are performed every year”, said Dr. Balasubramaniyam, Chief Nephrologists, Kauvery Hospital, “Majority of the transplantations are performed where the donor is living related and a few are from cadaveric donors.”

It is estimated that 1 in every 65,000 children develop End Stage renal disease (ESRD) in children needing dialysis and transplantation. In the US, it is estimated that 1200 children develop ESRD every year. The disease can affect right from the new born period to adolescence.

Addressing the media about the two successful Kidney transplant surgeries performed on a 9 and 11 year old children at Kauvery Hospital, “In these cases, both the children had reached transplant state. The 9 years old boy had congenitally maldeveloped kidneys with high blood pressure requiring multiple blood pressure medications and acid accumulation, making it difficult to control with medications alone. The 11 years old had posterior urethral valve that led to recurrent urinary infection that further led to kidney failure. Both the children have done well post transplantation and had completed one month after surgery.” said Dr. Balasubramaniyam.

Both the kids were managed by Paediatric Nephrologists’ Dr. Prahalad, till they reached transplant stage. Subsequently Dr. R. Balasubramaniyam, Chief Of Nephrology took over the care. In both these cases, the mother was identified as the renal donor. After proper evaluation of the donor and the recipient, the transplant approval was obtained from the authorization committee. Ms. Hemalatha, transplant co-ordinator guided the process. The anaesthetist team headed by Dr. Silamban and the surgical team headed by Dr. V. Muthu and Dr. Jeevagan operated on the donor and the recipient. Transplantation department nursing care was done by Ms. Inbanila and Ms. Mutulakshmi.

Talking about the increasing risk of Kidney failure in Children, Dr. Balasubramaniyam said, “Once the child is identified to have chronic renal failure in the initial stages, the aim of treatment consists of controlling the diet, controlling the blood pressure, aiding the bone growth, maintaining the haemoglobin and acid base equilibrium. But once the kidney failure reaches an advanced stage we should do pre-emptive kidney transplantation.
Dr. Aravindan Selvaraj, Executive director, Kauvery Hospital said, “When compared to adult renal transplantation, very few happen in children, because transplantations in children require much greater expertise. Some children are born with congenital abnormalities of the urinary tract that lead to recurrent urinary infections and kidney failure. The kidneys also fail due to large quantities of protein leakage in the kidneys called Nephrotic syndrome and this will lead to kidney failure especially when the children don’t respond to treatment.”

Not many children are identified with the problems, the awareness that paediatric transplantations can be performed is still limited and not many centres can successfully perform paediatric transplantation.” He lauded the entire team of Doctors and Nurses for their efforts towards saving the lives of these two children.