AHMEDABAD, JULY 31
It’s match-making with a difference for the best suited at the Kidney Hospital or the Institute of Kidney Diseases & Research Centre (IKDRC). The institute is playing the role of a matchmaker to pair the best suitors.
Yes, match-making of a different sort for kidney swap transplant is underway at IKDRC, popularly known as Kidney Hospital, after a gap of almost four months.
Swap transplants are scheduled when ABO blood group or Human Lymphocyte Antigen (HLA) of a live donor, who is essentially a blood relative, does not match with that of the patient.
In that case, ABO blood group or HLA matching of donor relative with that of some other patient is sought. And after consent of two pairs of the donor-patient duo, cross-matching is done before transplant is carried out. But finding a perfect match is a tedious process. This involves a long-drawn process of counselling donors-patients and mammoth paperwork to seek government permission under the purview of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) to keep the entire process under a legal framework.
“It is just like two unknown people meet in person for a prospective matrimonial match and uptick their guna-dosh. The donor-patients pairs can meet in person, talk to each other, exchange their medical reports, and weigh their health parameters before they agree to go for a swap transplant,” said Dr Vineet Mishra, Director-IKDRC-ITS. The institute is preferred by transplant patients from the entire country for better outcomes due to its patient-centric and transparent process and best transplant outcome at an affordable cost.
However, the task is made easy by the institute by shortlisting two best matches for swap transplant after 50 characteristics of prospective matches are fed into a matchmaking software. The institute uses the software developed by American Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth and offers the service free of cost to its patients. “We do not charge a single paisa from our patients but the cost of matchmaking for swap transplants in the US hovers around Rs 3 lakh per swap match,” informed Dr Mishra.
The institute has performed 446 swap transplants so far and committed to maintaining an average of 50-70 transplant this year. However, any other kidney transplant facility in the country performs around 10-15 swap transplants in a year. Interestingly, 50 percent of the patient-relative duo come for Kidney swap transplants from other states.
The two sets of swap transplant held last week at the institute had donor relative-patient pairs from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. Another set of swap transplant planned this week has pairs from Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Long term outcome in swap transplant is best without any additional cost to incompatible patients.
