Awake kidney transplant can help shorten your hospital stay so you can recover more comfortably at home.
Health.- Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine Hospital in Chicago (USA) performed for the first time a kidney transplant in which the patient was awake throughout the operation, They announced this Monday. During the surgical procedure, John Nicholas, 28, felt no pain, because it was administered to him local anesthesia, similar to that used during a cesarean section.
The surgical intervention, which lasted less than two hours, It was carried out on May 24 under the direction of transplant surgeon Vinayak Rohan and anesthesiologist and regional head of anesthesiology, Vicente García Tomás.
“This is the first case at Northwestern Medicine where a patient was awake throughout an entire kidney transplant procedure and went home the next day, which basically makes it an outpatient procedure,” said Satish Nadig, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center.
Advantages of local anesthesia
“Doing anesthesia for the awake kidney transplant was easier than many cesarean sections,” Garcia Tomas said. “For John’s case, we placed a spinal anesthesia injection in the operating room with some sedation for his comfort. It was incredibly simple and uneventful, but allowed John to be awake for the procedure, which improved the patient experience“, he explained.
“Awake kidney transplantation can not only help patients who have risks or phobias of general anesthesia, but can also help shorten your hospital stay, “so they can recover more comfortably at home,” Garcia Tomas said. “In the operating room, it was an incredible experience to be able to show a patient what their new kidney looked like before it was placed inside their body,” Nadig added.
“A very interesting experience”
“It was a very interesting experience to know what was happening in real time and to be aware of the magnitude of what they were doing,” Nicholas said. “At one point during the surgery, I remember asking, ‘Should I wait for the spinal anesthesia to kick in?’ They had already been working so hard and I had been completely oblivious to that fact. In truth, there is no sensation whatsoever. I had been given a sedative for my comfort, but still I was aware of what they were doing. Especially when they called out my name and told me regarding certain milestones they had achieved,” he added.
Kidney donated by his childhood friend
At the age of 16, Nicholas began to have kidney problems, but In 2022, his condition deteriorated a lot. and needed a kidney transplant. “I was in my kitchen making dinner and John texted me saying, ‘My doctor says it’s time for me to start looking for kidney donors.’ I looked at my phone and without hesitation, filled out the form that night.“John is a good friend from childhood, Pat Wise, 29, explained. “John is a good friend. He needed a kidney and I had an extra one. I had to at least explore the potential of being his donor,” he said.
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2024-07-09 21:19:33
