Tamilnadu’s 1st Ever Successful Fully ROBOTIC Kidney Transplantation achieved by GEM Hospital
Chennai, 11th March 2021: Team of doctors from GEM Hospital and Research Centre, Chennai has successfully accomplished Tamilnadu’s first ever fully Robotic Kidney Transplantation on a 36 yrs old female patient Mrs. Kavitha (name changed) who had suffered from kidney disease for the last 8 years.
When the whole world is celebrating Women’s Day, Mrs. Kavitha couldn’t have asked for a more precious gift from the man of her life. Yes, Mr. Kumar (name changed), her husband donates a kidney to his wife and both are extremely happy now.
Live Related Kidney Transplantation is a quicker option for patients with kidney failure, whereas waiting time for cadaveric kidney transplantation may take years. Live Kidney Transplantation has been regularly done in GEM Hospital and Research Center over the last 2 years with a 100 percent success rate. GEM hospital is one among the few centers which routinely do keyhole surgery for removal of donor kidney called Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy. Most often, donors are ready to go home on the second post operative day and resume their routine activities within a week. 
Dr. Swaminathan Sambandam, Head of Transplantation surgery, GEM Hospital said “Robotic Kidney Transplant ation has several distinct advantages over open kidney transplant particularly in obese patients. Robotic Kidney Transplantation is more precise; patient will have only a few centimeters small scar, less pain after surgery with a rapid recovery and quick return to normalcy”.
Dr. Prabhu Kanchi, Head of Nephrology and Renal Transplant, GEM Hospital said “Mrs. Kavitha was an obese patient weighing about 96 kilograms. Kidney transplant was the only best treatment option for her at that point of time. After counselling, the family understood that kidney donation is an extremely safe procedure and her husband came forward to donate one of his kidneys”.
“Patient’s kidney function (Creatnine level) improved to normal within 3 days and she was able to do all her routine activities by third day after surgery, enabling discharge on the fourth post operative day”, Dr. Prabhu further added.
“GEM hospital has been a center of excellence for doing complex surgeries with laparoscopic and robotic tech niques for decades. Robotic Kidney Transplantation done at GEM hospital is a new milestone in the field of Ki dney Transplantation in Tamilnadu” said Dr. S. Asokan, CEO and Director, GEM Hospital Chennai.
Dr. C. Palanivelu, Chairman, GEM Hospitals, who is a visionary and pioneer Laparoscopic and Robotic surgeon, lauded the Transplant team for the exemplary feat and mentioned that GEM Hospital has always strived and will continue to raise the standards of medicine with advanced technology.
“Very soon this service will be provided through Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme”, he added.
