Lung transplant surgeons at Chennai's Global Health City successfully performed India's first successful minimal access lung transplant on a 61-year-old recipient.
Raja Babu Shah underwent the minimal access transplant procedure on November 24, bringing smiles on the face of his wife and their three kids.
Shah was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a progressive interstitial lung disease, a few years ago, and showed poor response to maximal medical management.
So he was put on the waiting list for lung transplantation under the Cadaver Transplantation Program of Tamil Nadu since July 2013.
He has been confined to bed and wheelchair for more than a year now.
On November 24, a suitable donor became available at Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore.
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Shah was offered a lung transplantation, which would give him a near normal life without oxygen.
The surgery was performed by a team was headed by Dr. Jnanesh Thacker - Senior Consultant Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon, Specialist in Heart and Lung Transplantation for Global Hospitals Group, and his team consisted of Dr. Nandkishore Kapadia, Dr. Vijil Rahulan, Dr. Govini Balasubramani, Dr. Manohar, Dr. Kalyan, Dr. Rajgopal and Dr. Sanjay Singh.
"Raja Babu Shah is the recipient of India's first recipient of minimal access lung transplant. He is also the oldest patient in India to receive lung transplantation and his recuperation is going to be reduced with less pain due to Minimal Access method adopted" said Dr. Vijil Rahulan, Head of Department of Respiratory Medicine and senior consultant pulmonologist, Global Health City.
Dr. Jnanesh Thacker said: "We knew this transplant surgery is going to be a litmus test. We got together as a team to discuss what we need to ensure for best clinical outcomes, and after that, the decision was made to take the road less travelled - Minimal access mode. We did a minimal access anterio-axillary thoracotomy with an incision, seven inches long, just below the nipple. We ensured that the internal mammary artery is preserved."
Dr. Nandkishore Kapadia, senior consultant, cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, said: "This was like a time bound mission shown in the movies, with the cadaver lung retrieval done at CMC Vellore, transported to Global Health City, Chennai, within a time span of 105 minutes, followed immediately by a four- hour recipient surgery."
Dr. Ravindranath,Chairman and Managing Director of the Global Hospitals Group, praised the transplantation team's effort in saving Shah's life through a novel attempt.