First robotic kidney transplant at govt facility performed at Delhi hospital

India’s first robotic kidney transplant surgery has been performed at the centre-run Safdarjung hospital in Delhi. The surgery was performed on a 39-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukabad, who was on dialysis and awaiting the transplant for years.

The kidney was donated by the patient’s 34-year-old wife. According to doctors, both the recipient and donor are recovering well after the successful surgery on Wednesday.

The robotic transplant was done by a team of doctors headed by Prof (Dr) Anup Kumar, Head of Department, Department of Urology, Robotics and Renal Transplant.

The doctors claimed it was the first such surgery to have been performed at a central government facility in the country.

Dr Anup Kumar said, "The nephrology team was led by Dr Himanshu Verma, HOD Nephrology. The Anaesthesia team was led by Dr Madhu Dayal. This was made possible by all administrative support of Medical superintendent SJH and VMMC Prof (Dr) BL Sherwal."

According to Dr Kumar, the surgery is a milestone in the history of Safdarjung Hospital. “Robotic renal transplant is the most technically challenging surgery in urology. It requires excellent expertise in robotics as well as renal transplant surgery. However, not all patients are suitable for undergoing minimally invasive surgery, and we will be selecting patients on case to case basis.”

According to doctors, these kinds of surgeries reduce the recovery time of the patient from weeks to days. “Since it is on a case-to-case basis, there is always a possibility of getting a waiver if a patient is not able to bear the cost,” said Kumar.