One of the most significant changes in surgery over the past 25 years has been the development of laparoscopic surgery. These minimally invasive procedures involve the use of a camera and several small incisions to perform an operation that once required a large incision. For living kidney donors, the results have been less pain, shorter hospital stays and a faster return to their usual activities.
The first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (kidney removal) in New Jersey was performed at the Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal and Pancreas Transplant Centers in 1998. Since then, the availability of this procedure has been a principle reason for an increase in the rate of living kidney donation. In 2000, nearly half of the kidney transplants performed in the state were a result of living donations.
Of the 100 living kidney donations anticipated at the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Centers this year, it is expected that 90 percent of the donors will undergo laparoscopic surgery. “Laparoscopic surgery for kidney donation has doubled the number of living donations and cut the hospital stay for donors in half,” says Stephen Guy, M.D., F.A.C.S. “Providing an improved surgical alternative for living donation benefits everyone who is waiting for a kidney. If we perform 100 living donor transplants a year, that is 100 less people on the cadaveric waiting list,” he explains.
In addition to the less invasive surgery, the Saint Barnabas transplant team has also eliminated the need for invasive angiograms that are standard procedure at other institutions before laparoscopic donor surgery. “The detailed images from our sophisticated CT technology make the angiograms unnecessary,” adds Dr. Guy.
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