File picture of SCB Medical College and Hospital

Cuttack, June 25: The kidney transplant unit at SCB Medical College and Hospital here has registered 70 per cent survival rate among the new organ recipients since March last year.

Of the 27 patients, who had undergone kidney transplantation, eight died after being discharged from the hospital, a RTI reply sought by social activist Rohan Kumar Mohanty revealed.

However, urologists at the hospital attributed the deaths to non-compliance to medications, improper living condition and bad hygiene in the post-operative stages. They said none of the deaths could be attributed to failure of surgery.

“Not one of the kidney transplant recipients had died due to either rejection of the transplanted organs or infections before being discharged between one-and-a-half months or two months after the surgery,” head of the urology department Datteswar Hota told The Telegraph.

“Moreover, with 70 per cent survival rate among the kidney transplant recipients the success at the hospital is much higher than the survival rate at the international level. Besides, none of the donors in the 27 cases has died so far,” Hota said.

The international statistics for survival of kidney transplant recipient within one year of kidney transplant is 60 to 65 per cent. Similarly, international statistics for long-term survival is 50 to 60 per cent, he said.

According to the RTI reply given by deputy secretary of the state health and family welfare department Kulamani Mishra, one patient died of septicaemia, while two others died of pneumonia and fungal pneumonia. In case of five other kidney transplant recipient deaths, one died of severe head injury and cerebral bleeding, three succumbed to cardiac failure, and in one case, the follow-up report was not available.

Hota said the kidney transplant recipients were given immune suppressive therapy to prevent rejection of the newly acquired organ by the body. “The body, due to decrease in immunity, automatically becomes vulnerable to infections such as septicaemia and pneumonia. This makes compliance to medications and hygienic living conditions vital in the post-operative stages,” said Hota, who is also the head of the kidney transplant unit.

Initially, the kidney transplant surgeries used to be conducted at the urology department after the programme had been launched in March last year. A dedicated renal transplant unit was inaugurated in March this year. Over 130 patients needing kidney transplant have been registered, while 27 surgeries are conducted.

The total cost of kidney transplant at the hospital is around Rs 1.5 lakh, which is rated as one of the cheapest in the country. Poor patients are provided with financial assistance from the Odisha State Treatment Fund to bear the cost of kidney transplant, official sources said.