Vietnamese doctors successfully perform first heart-kidney transplant

02/03/2023 09:57

It took the team three hours to take out the organs, five hours to transplant the heart and two hours to transplant the kidney.

HÀ NỘI — The first heart and kidney transplant on the same patient in Việt Nam was successfully performed on February 15 by doctors of the Việt Nam-Germany Friendship Hospital, the hospital announced on Friday.

The transplanted organs were taken from a brain-dead donor.

He suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, heart failure and severe arrhythmias, leading to end-stage renal failure.

Due to ineffective treatment, he was instructed by doctors to have a heart and kidney transplant.

In mid-2022, he was introduced to Việt Nam-Germany Friendship Hospital. After careful evaluation, the hospital’s experts agreed to perform a simultaneous heart and kidney transplant for the patient with donated organs from a brain-dead donor.

In six months since the transplantation decision was made, no donated brain-dead organ truly matched, and the patient had to continue to visit hospitals for heart and kidney treatment.

In early February 2023, one woman who had a brain death due to a severe traumatic brain injury after a traffic accident donated multiple organs with family consensus.

It took the team three hours to take out the organs, five hours to transplant the heart and two hours to transplant the kidney.

The patient’s heart and kidney recovered fully on Friday, eight days after the transplant.

He can sit up, eat and communicate without special assistance.

He will undergo further post-transplant treatment in the next few weeks.

This was the first time Vietnamese doctors have successfully performed a transplant of heart and kidney organs on one patient.

Vietnamese doctors have performed two organ transplants on one patient three times.

Two years ago, Việt Nam-Germany Hospital doctors conducted a liver and kidney transplant on a patient.

Heart-kidney transplantation technique has been performed in countries with a developed medical system. The US has carried out more than 100 heart-kidney transplants each year.

The Việt Nam-Germany Hospital led the country in organ transplants and has performed more than 1,500 of these surgeries. — VNS