The Department of Paediatrics at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) has successfully performed its first paediatric kidney transplant.

The transplant was successfully performed in an 11-year-old girl with end-stage kidney disease. She had been on dialysis for the past one-and-a-half years. The child’s mother donated a kidney.

According to a press note, Jipmer had been performing transplantation through its established transplant programme and gained experience in providing comprehensive transplant care, to all patients including adolescents and young adults.

However, this transplant marked a distinct milestone as the Department of Paediatrics had taken the lead in planning, coordinating, and executing the transplant as a dedicated paediatric programme, in close collaboration with the various specialist teams of Jipmer.

According to Dr. Vir Singh Negi, director, Jipmer, “Paediatric kidney transplantation requires a high degree of clinical expertise, meticulous coordination, and specialised care at every stage. The surgical procedure is only one part of the journey; immunosuppression, fluid and electrolyte management, nutrition, anaesthesia, intensive care and post-transplant monitoring require careful adaption to the needs of a growing child. The successful outcome in this child reflects the dedication, expertise, and seamless teamwork of our clinicians, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals across mutliple departments.”

This exerience would provide a foundation for a sustainable paediatric kidney transplant programme at Jipmer and enable more children with end-stage kidney disease, to access advanced transplant care within the public healthcare system, he added.

According to Jipmer, the programme also benefited from the mentorship and clinical guidance of the Paediatric Nehprology team of AIIMS, New Delhi, under an outreach partnership programme initiative of the International Paediatric Transplant Association. The experience gained through this grant is expected to contribute to the development of a sustainable and dedicated paediatric kidney transplant programme at the institute.