Feb 6, 2009 7:30 am US/Pacific
Md. Surgeons Remove Donated Kidney Through Vagina
BALTIMORE (CBS) ―
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For the first time ever, surgeons at Johns Hopkins have removed a donor kidney through a patient's vagina.
CBS
It's a groundbreaking approach to kidney transplantation. For the first time ever, surgeons at Johns Hopkins have removed a donor kidney through a patient's vagina.
Doctors say the goal is to make organ retrieval easier for patients, reports CBS station WJZ-TV in Baltimore.
The scar left after Kimberly Johnson's gallbladder surgery is significantly larger than any of the marks that remain after her latest procedure. The 48-year-old donated a kidney to her niece, Jennifer, Thursday.
"Her chances of survival were getting lower and lower. She was getting sicker and sicker," said Kimberly Johnson.
"My kidney was slowly decreasing in function," said Jennifer Gilbert.
Normally, transplant doctors make a five-inch incision in the abdomen through which they remove a donated organ. But this time, Johns Hopkins surgeon Robert Montgomery approached the procedure in an entirely different way.
"Rather than taking it out through an incision in the abdomen, which is more painful, we removed the kidney through a natural opening--the vagina," he said.
It's called transvaginal kidney removal. Doctors insert a camera in the patient's navel, which allows them to see their movements on a monitor. Using instruments inserted through two other tiny incisions, the surgeon cuts the organ away from other tissues and blood vessels.
"Then we introduced a tube through the vagina and in the tube is a plastic bag and we deployed the bag, dropped the kidney in a bag and pulled it out in an incision made in the vagina," Montgomery said.
The advantage is less pain for patients and recovery time is cut in half, two weeks instead of four. Kimberly left the hospital the day after surgery.
"I'm still sore, still very, very tired but I feel very grateful that I have a niece that I could help get a life," she said.
Jennifer is also doing well. So far, her body is showing no signs of organ rejection.
Transvaginal kidney removals have been done before to remove cancerous kidneys or those that aren't functioning.
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