A bladder transplant was performed for the first time in the U.S., at Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles. The operation was considered impossible until now, due to access difficulties and the complexity of vascularization, but from now on new hopes are open, the American medical institution noted in a statement.
The patient is 41-year-old Oscar Larrainzar, a father of four children. He got a new bladder recovered from a donor He had previously lost most of his bladder during a tumor removal process, leaving the remainder too small and compromised to work. Both of his kidneys were also subsequently removed due to cancer and end-stage kidney disease, IPN reports.
The entire procedure lasted approximately eight hours. 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. The kidney immediately made a large volume of urine, and the patient’s kidney function improved immediately.
Drs. Nima Nassiri and Inderbir Gill, who worked out the method and performed the surgery, plan to perform more bladder transplants as part of a UCLA clinical trial, with the goal of better understanding potential complications and helping patients suffering from debilitating bladder conditions.
