Some surgeons at the Ronald Reagan’s University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) medical centre, United States (US) have successfully carried out the world’s first ever human bladder transplant.
The UCLA revealed via a statement that the groundbreaking surgery which took place on Sunday, May 4 marks a major step forward in treating patients with severe bladder conditions.
The recipient, identified as 41-year-old Oscar Larrainzar, a father of four had previously lost a significant portion of his bladder to cancer.
UCLA stated that due to cancer and end-stage kidney disease, Larrainzar also had both kidneys removed and had been undergoing dialysis for seven years.
However in the recent surgery, he received both a new bladder and a kidney from an organ donor, with the transplant successfully completed in an eight-hour procedure.
The statement read, “The surgeons first transplanted the kidney, followed by the bladder; they then connected the kidney to the new bladder using the technique they had pioneered.”
Dr. Nima Nassiri, one of the lead surgeons, stated that the results were positive almost immediately after the operation.
He said, “The kidney immediately made a large volume of urine, and the patient’s kidney function improved immediately.
“There was no need for any dialysis after surgery, and the urine drained properly into the new bladder.”
Nassiri and fellow surgeon Inderbir Gill explained that full bladder transplants had never been attempted before because of the intricate network of blood vessels in the pelvic region, making the procedure extremely challenging.
Adding that, “This first attempt at bladder transplantation has been over four years in the making.
“Previously, patients in need of bladder reconstruction could have one artificially created using a part of the intestines or have a stoma bag inserted to collect urine.
“Those techniques had several short-term and long-term risks that doctors hope will be circumvented with the full bladder transplant.”
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