AHMEDABAD: The pandemic hit organ transplant programmes across India very hard. Compared to 390 kidney transplants at IKDRC in 2019, 2020 saw only 75 transplants till March 31. However, what did not change was the ratio of living donors to cadaver kidney donations, at 3:1.
A retrospective study by Dr Vivek Kute, Dr Pranjal Modi, Dr Vineet Mishra and other experts on two decades of kidney transplants at IKDRC brought out the figure. Progress, however, has been made in the past few years, said the authors of the study. When the programme was launched in 1997 by Dr H L Trivedi, there were 54 transplants from living donors and six from the dead.
Dr Mishra, director of IKDRC, said, “There is greater awareness about kidney disease and treatment now. We now have 54 dialysis centres in Gujarat and intend to add more.”
The study also revealed that from 1997 to 2020, a total of 4,895 transplants were from living donors and 943 from the deceased. The most common diseases that led to end-stage kidney disease in recipients were chronic glomerulonephritis (24%), diabetes (16%), and hypertension (16%), among others. DyCM Nitin Patel announced donation of Rs 100 crore for IKDRC-GUTS from a philanthropist.
