Hyderabad: Only 5 to 10 per cent of kidney transplants are being carried out in the country while 90 per cent of renal patients are on dialysis as their blood groups do not match with those of the donors, doctors have said.
There are 150 to 200 persons per 1 lakh population suffering from end-stage renal disease in India. For a successful kidney transplant, the most important factor is matching of blood group of the donor and recipient. In 30 per cent of the cases, the blood groups do not match due to which the transplants cannot be carried out.
Dr G. Sridhar, senior consultant and transplant nephrologist, said, “Recent advances allow transplantation where the blood groups are not matched by using the method of plasmapharesis. This is called incompatible kidney transplant, where blood groups A, B, AB and O make it possible to transplant kidney between some recipients and living donors. This treatment has given successful results and we are hoping that it will reduce the waiting period for transplant.”
In this method, before and after a kidney transplant, medical treatment is given to lower antibody levels in the blood and reduce the risk of rejection in the donors. It includes a process of removing antibodies from the blood and prescribing other medications that protect the new kidney from antibodies.
The method has shown that after successful transplant, the surgeons have to work towards prevention of rejection as early as possible by making the body accept the kidney. Experts say that this method can be evaluated for those patients who are fit and do not have other complications.co-morbidities.
Senior nephrologist Dr Suresh K. said, “The key factor in this method is the level of antibodies in the donor and recipient blood group. Fitness level of the patient and any other underlying illness also have to be checked.”
Experts state that blood group matching was a major barrier for long but this new method can be evaluated for those patients who are fit and do not have other co-morbidities like obesity and diabetes, whereby their quality of life can be improved.
