Two surgeons extracted a kidney from a living donor last July to transplant it to her sister vaginally. Using a surgical robot.
Using a surgical robot, two urological surgeons from the Toulouse University Hospital achieved a world first: transplanting a kidney from a living donor to a recipient vaginally.
Dr Nicolas Doumerc, expert in robot-assisted urological surgery, and Dr Federico Sallusto, coordinator-responsible for kidney transplantation at the Toulouse University Hospital, performed this operation for the first time on May 13. The surgeons had transplanted the kidney through the recipient’s vagina. The intervention, which took place on July 9, is “a 2e major breakthrough ”, according to Rangueil hospital. The graft harvesting and transplantation were performed vaginally “in a single sequence with robotic assistance” in two sisters.
Multiple advantages
Thanks to the surgical robot, the two women in their forties were able to return home very quickly. The donor was able to return home after 2 days, and her sister on the 4the day after the operation.
In addition to the reduced hospitalization time, the use of the surgical robot reduces the size of the scars, alleviates post-operative pain and the risk of lymph fluid effusion. The development of robot-assisted interventions will also make it possible to transplant ineligible patients due to morbid obesity.
In France, robotic surgery was used for the first time at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil, then at the Tours University Hospital in 2013. But this type of surgery is still not widely used. Currently, only France, India and the United States use it and have been able to benefit a hundred patients.
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-1730888646.jpg "Kidney donation while alive: “It was an act of love that I did for my sister”")
