Dr. K. Anantha Rao
Consultant Nephrologist & Transplant Physician
KIMS Hospitals, Kurnool.
Every year, 13 th of August is observed as world organ donation day. The aim of this day is to motivate general public to pledge to donate organs after death, and to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation. Five lakh people die every year in India due to non-availability of organ donor. Two lakh patients on dialysis die every year and only five thousand patients get the kidney transplant. Thus, there is a large gap between the number of organs requires and the number of donors. Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for patients with end stage kidney failure. One of the main hurdles for kidney transplant is lack of donors. There are two kinds of donors for kidney transplant-1) Live 2) Cadaver/ Brain dead. Live donors are generally immediate family members of the patient. If the immediate relatives are unfit of donation, then the patient is registered for cadaveric kidney transplant program, Jeevandan in Andhra Pradesh.
There are misconceptions about organ donation. Live donors, family members of the patient hesitate to donate organs due to fear of loss of their own health. This misbelief is not true. For example, kidney donation is completely safe and donors generally do not develop major health problems after donation. the donors are thoroughly evaluated, many blood tests, urine tests, cardiac tests, psychotic evaluation and several other tests are done the establish physical and mental fitness for donation. Even if slight abnormality is found, they are declared unfit for donation. Single kidney is enough to sustain life without any problem. However care should be taken to prevent damage to the kidney, like avoid pain killers, alternative drugs, avoid weight gain and maintain BP under normal range and regular health checkup.
Some patients are admitted with road traffic accident or brain hemorrhage, few of them unfortunately do not have brain activity, however their heart is beating and circulation is maintained. Although they are brain dead, other organs like kidneys, heart, liver, eyes are functional and can be used for
transplantation. Such patients are called cadaveric donors. One cadaveric donor can give life to 8 people with end organ failure and the organs that can be transplanted are kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, intestine, pancreas, eyes (cornea), heart valves, skin, bone, ligaments, and veins.