Kolkata: Man gets two kidneys in rare transplant surgery

KOLKATA: The two kidneys from the deceased donor at RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) were transplanted into a single recipient on Tuesday night. This, perhaps, is the first time in eastern India that a recipient got a dual kidney in a procedure called En Bloc renal transplant. In fact, cases of En Bloc transplant are quite rare.

Doctors said that one kidney is enough for optimal functioning. But while a single kidney works in living donor transplants, sometimes it makes sense to transplant both organs to a single recipient in cases of deceased donations.


The reasons doctors mentioned included age of the donor, co-morbid conditions and clinical parameters that affect the condition of the liver. In this case, donor Rina Mukherjee was 63 and had cardiac aliment. Her blood pressure, too, was on the lower side. Considering these factors, RTIICS doctor Pratik Das (nephrologist) and renal transplant surgeons Tapas Kumar Saha and Tarsshid Ali Jahangir decided to take up the more challenging En Bloc transplant.

“We term such donors marginal. The recipient is just 41 and we transplanted both kidneys for sustainable function. Using a single kidney may not work well for the recipient,” said Das.

The surgery is technically challenging. It takes almost double the amount of time compared to a single kidney transplant. Hence, the organ recipient has to be kept under anaesthesia longer. The dose of immunosuppressant is also higher.

“We started the surgery around 10.45pm and took about one and a half hours to conclude. The patient is stable with good urine output,” Das added.

Rina Mukherjee of Haltu was admitted to RTIICS on January 28 after she suffered intra-cranial haemhorrage. She was declared brain dead on Tuesday. Her son Nilanajn, a civil engineer with KMC, and husband Soumendranath agreed to donate her organs.

“My wife had read about an organ donation only two days before she suffered the brain haemhorrage. She told us to donate her organs too. We are happy to have carried out her last wishes,” Soumendranath told TOI.