Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 18: The kidney failure patients now are better equipped to fight the problem with newer developments in kidney transplantation and far better results than before, said Dr Priyadarshi Ranjan, Surgical Director and Chief Kidney Transplant Surgeon at Fortis Hospital, Mohali.
While addressing media persons here today, Dr Ranjan said that in the event of kidney failure or end stage kidney disease the patient has options to choose from- dialysis or kidney transplantation.
Flanked by his patients from the Kashmir, Mushtaque Ahmed, Aamir Hussain Malik and Jamsheeda Nisar Pandith, who have received a successful kidney transplant by Dr Ranjan at Fortis Mohali, he said, “If hundred patients start their dialysis today and we follow them up for next ten years approximately 75-80 percent patients will die at the end of 10 years whereas if 100 patients opt for a kidney transplant today, more than 80 percent live beyond 10 years,” he said.
Dr Ranjan explained that the longevity is possible only after a kidney transplant, as every year one-third of patients on dialysis suffer from a vascular access problem, infection, blood pressure disturbances, dialysis disequilibrium syndrome apart from increased incidence of heart attacks and brain strokes. He added that dialysis worldwide is considered bridge therapy and not treatment of kidney failure. Dialysis should only be used to bridge time gap in patients who have kidney failure and are making arrangements for a kidney transplant.
Elaborating upon the developments, which have taken place in the field of kidney transplantation, he added that the laws have become more patient friendly.
At Fortis Mohali, almost all kidneys are harvested with laparoscopy, he added.
Other developments in surgical techniques have now made kidney transplant possible in very young children or the pediatric patients as well. Newer immunosuppressive medicines have become available, which have drastically reduced the rates of rejection in transplant patients and more and more patients are living a healthy successful life after a kidney transplant, Dr Ranjan disclosed.
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