Daijiworld Media Network – Los Angeles
Los Angeles, May 18: In a groundbreaking medical achievement, a team of US surgeons announced on Sunday that they have completed the world’s first in-human bladder transplant. The historic surgery was conducted jointly by experts from Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Health at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Leading the effort were Inderbir Gill, founding executive director of USC Urology, and Dr Nima Nassiri, urologic transplant surgeon and director of the UCLA vascularized composite bladder allograft transplant programme.
“This surgery marks a historic moment in medicine and could revolutionize the treatment of patients with ‘terminal’ bladders that no longer function,” said Gill. “Transplantation is already lifesaving for many organs, and now the bladder can join that list.”
The patient had faced serious health challenges, being dialysis-dependent for seven years after losing most of his bladder to cancer surgery more than five years ago. Both kidneys were later removed due to renal cancer, rendering him dependent on dialysis and without a functioning bladder.
“This first attempt at bladder transplantation was over four years in the making,” Nassiri explained. “For carefully selected patients, it offers a promising new option.”
The innovative surgery involved a combined kidney and bladder transplant, enabling the patient to immediately stop dialysis and produce urine for the first time in seven years. The team first transplanted the kidney, followed by the bladder, and then connected the new kidney to the new bladder in an operation lasting around eight hours.
“The kidney started producing a large volume of urine right away, and the patient’s kidney function improved immediately,” Nassiri added. “There was no need for further dialysis, and the urine drained properly into the new bladder.”
Despite the complexity, the surgery went smoothly, with the patient showing positive progress, said Gill. This landmark procedure could open new avenues for patients suffering from bladder failure and complex urological conditions.