First bladder transplant opens fresh door to save lives
Transplant recipient Oscar Larrainzar is flanked by UCLA's Dr. Nima Nassiri (L) and USC's Dr. Inderbir Gill as they walked down a hallway at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Photo by Nick Carranza/UCLA Health
What you need to know:
- Being the first patient to benefit from it, there are many unknowns, with experts unable to tell how well the bladder will function in the long run.
- Prof Frank Asiimwe, the urologist and transplant surgeon at Mulago National Referral Hospital (NRH), when asked whether Uganda is also planning to perform bladder transplants, said their focus right now is perfecting kidney transplantation.
Surgeons at the US-based University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have successfully performed the first-ever bladder transplant, a breakthrough that unlocks new possibilities for saving the lives of patients with similar complications.
In a media release on May 18, UCLA said the recipient is a patient who previously had most of his bladder removed during a tumour removal, and both of his kidneys were also subsequently removed due to renal cancer. He is a 41-year-old father of four. The groundbreaking eight-hour life-saving surgery was successfully performed at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre on May 4.
The procedure, led by Dr Nima Nassiri, a distinguished urologic transplant surgeon and director of the UCLA Vascularised Composite Bladder Allograft Transplant Programme, followed years of meticulous preparation by the expert team. “The recovery of the kidney and bladder from the donor was performed at One Legacy. All parts of the procedure, including surgery and post-surgical monitoring during the transplantation, were aligned with the highest current clinical and research standards,” reads the information from UCLA.
One Legacy is Southern California’s organ, eye, and tissue recovery organisation, which connects donors to patients in need. However, the University noted that the biggest risks of organ transplantation are the body’s potential rejection of the organ and side effects caused by the mandatory immunosuppressing drugs given to prevent organ rejection.
Being the first patient to benefit from it, there are many unknowns, with experts unable to tell how well the bladder will function in the long run. Prof Frank Asiimwe, the urologist and transplant surgeon at Mulago National Referral Hospital (NRH), when asked whether Uganda is also planning to perform bladder transplants, said their focus right now is perfecting kidney transplantation.
“We are going to do kidney, liver transplants. The recipients of kidney transplants are doing well, and we plan to do more within this year,” he told the this publication.
