Robotic Donor Nephrectomy performed at Yenepoya Hospital

Managluru, Nov 8: City based Yenepoya Medical College has now pioneered to become the first ever hospital in coastal Karnataka to do Robotic Donor Nephrectomy.

Ms Anita (name changed) was a young lady who was determined to save her husband from the agony of undergoing dialysis once in two days. She had small kids to take care of and also had to support her family financially due to husband's ill health. She approached the doctors at Yenepoya with willingness to donate her kidney and a request for early discharge from hospital.

The Robotic Renal Transplant team comprising of Urologists Dr. Mujeeburahiman, Dr. Altaf Khan, Dr. Nischith Dsouza and Nephrologist Dr. Santhosh Pai decided to go for Robotic donor nephrectomy taking into account her request and the advantages associated with robotic surgery.

Robotic surgery is a procedure where in the operating surgeon sits on a console near the patient's operating table and controls the movement of instruments within the patient's body.

With this technique the surgery becomes very precise and accurate. That is because of the 3D imaging, magnification of 10 times and the dexterity of movements of the robotic arm.

The advantage to the patient is more than 10 times than that of a normal open donor nephrectomy. The donor will have minimal blood loss, small scar, less pain and more importantly they can resume their duties within few days time.

Lymphocyte cross matching facility has been started in Yenepoya Research Center (YRC) for the benefit of transplant patients in Mangalore which was until now available only in selected cities. Earlier Mangalore patients had to go to other cities or their blood had to be sent there.

Now since if is available in Yenepoya Research Center all the hospitals in Mangalore can send blood samples to YRC for cross matching facility. By providing this facility our cadaver transplants have increased at a faster rate.