For the first time, Vietnam successfully performed a cross-donor kidney transplant.

End-stage renal failure, despite receiving kidney donations from relatives, but the kidneys were not compatible, so both young women could not undergo a transplant. Thanks to the method of kidney transplantation from living donors, the two patients overcame the disease and returned to normal life.

Donated kidney but not compatible

Vietnam's organ transplant industry has just made a new step forward, catching up with the world's transplant techniques by using the cross-kidney transplant method from two donor pairs and living transplant. The above technique was first performed at Cho Ray Hospital in early January 2017, the success of the transplant was announced by the hospital on February 7.

Two pairs of kidney removal and transplantation surgeries were performed in parallel.

End-stage chronic kidney failure has left two young women, Le Thi Anh Hong (31 years old, residing in Kien Giang) and Vu Thi Hue (32 years old, residing in Dak Nong), in dire straits. Each woman has two young children, but kidney failure has forced them to rely on dialysis machines. Living far away, having to undergo dialysis three times a week, the patients have to rent a room in Ho Chi Minh City for convenience in treatment.

“I hardly have time to go home to my family, my children are all crying. As a mother, I can’t even take care of my children’s meals and education, the burden of the family is placed on my husband and elderly parents. After nearly 2 years of dialysis, my illness got worse every day, my life was at a standstill. Hope for a healthy life opened up when my biological mother decided to donate her kidney for a transplant. However, the door to life slammed shut when the doctor announced that my mother and I had many incompatible test results, the chance of the transplant being successful was very low,” Ms. Hue shared.

The transplanted organ has worked well in the patient's body.

In the same situation as Ms. Hue, hope also came and then slipped away from Ms. Anh Hong's hands. After giving birth to her second child, the young mother learned that she had kidney failure. After more than 10 months of dialysis, her stepfather agreed to a kidney transplant. After many months of traveling back and forth to Ho Chi Minh City to perform tests, the father and daughter burst into tears in despair when the indicators for the donor and recipient were not compatible.

Associate Professor, Dr. Thai Minh Sam, Head of the Department of Urology, Cho Ray Hospital said: "As soon as we received the organ transplant registration of Vu Thi Hue, we performed many tests. However, the immune factors of the donor and recipient are not compatible, the recipient has antibodies against the donor's source, the risk of acute rejection will occur, endangering the patient, and the failure of the transplant is very high."

Also according to Associate Professor Minh Sam: “After more than half a year of deliberation, the hospital has repeatedly consulted with leading experts in the world through scientific conferences and direct working sessions but still could not find a feasible solution. Experts all share the same opinion that if a suitable donor organ source can be found for another donor and recipient pair, performing a cross-transplantation technique is the most feasible and safest option.”

More hope for kidney failure patients

Luckily, the hospital received the registration for the second donor-recipient pair between the stepfather and Ms. Anh Hong. Although the recipient also had antibodies against the donor's source, when considering the necessary factors between the donor of the first pair and the second pair and vice versa, a very high compatibility was achieved, the antibodies did not resist the antigen and were immunologically compatible (equivalent to relatives) ensuring sufficient conditions for the transplant.

Cross-kidney transplantation has opened up new hope for patients with end-stage renal failure.

As soon as a suitable donor and recipient pair was found, the hospital invited the two families to discuss the cross-transplantation, with the kidney source from Ms. Anh Hong's stepfather being transplanted to Ms. Hue, and the kidney source from Ms. Hue's biological mother being transplanted to Ms. Anh Hong. Immediately, both the patient and the donor from both sides happily agreed.

On January 11, 2017, after preparing the necessary conditions to simultaneously perform kidney removal and kidney transplant by two teams, the doctors began the surgery. “After 6 hours of simultaneously performing the endoscopic kidney removal and kidney transplant surgery, we successfully performed both transplants.

After surgery, the kidney transplant function of both young mothers was very good, urine was regular and abundant. After 2 days post-surgery, the kidney transplanted into the patient's body was functioning normally, nearly 1 week later, both the transplant recipient and the kidney donor were discharged from the hospital in stable health.

Up to now, after nearly 1 month of performing the organ transplant technique, both patients are healthy, eating and living like normal people. However, like other transplants, the patients still have to use anti-rejection drugs.

Two patients who have had normal healthy lives happily thank the doctor.

These are the first two pairs of cross-kidney transplants successfully performed in Vietnam. Associate Professor Minh Sam said that the success of this technique will open up a new direction for patients with kidney failure in particular and organ failure in general, helping to expand the source of donated organs for recipients. Along with the methods of kidney-organ transplants from brain-dead donors and cardiac arrest donors, Cho Ray Hospital is expected to develop more kidney transplant techniques on donors with different blood types.

According to Dantri