KIMS Hyderabad Doctors Perform India’s 1st Breathing Lung Transplant

Hyderabad: Doctors at the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) hospital in Hyderabad completed India's first-ever breathing lung transplant on Sunday.

The transplant (Xvivo organ perfusion system) was performed on a middle-aged patient with end-stage interstitial lung disease who had been waiting since August 2021 on 10 litres of oxygen support.

On Sunday morning, Dr Sandeep Attawar of KIMS Hospitals and his team performed this procedure in Hyderabad.

The breathing lung procedure can assist in reducing the negative effects of cold ischemia and enhance lung function, therefore enhancing organ utilisation. As a consequence, 30% more donor lungs are used, benefiting even more people who are waiting for a lung transplant.

The lungs are run through a device that cools the organ while it breathes and feeds it with a substrate-enriched fluid containing antibiotics to wipe away minor signs of infection. Cleaning the airways using bronchoscopy may be done while on the machine, and multiple tests can be run at the same time to examine and improve the performance of the lung before it is cooled and transplanted into the recipient, according to the experts.

"This paradigm is at the cutting edge of lung transplantation and is part of the organ regeneration concept. We at KIMS Hospitals are the first to take this unique approach in India, and with this, we could provide the best results in the long term. Only a select few transplant institutions in the US, Canada, and Austria take this approach to enhance lung transplant outcomes," said Dr Sandeep Attawar, Program Director – Lung Transplant Program, KIMS Hospitals.

"Xvivo organ conditioning system is the cutting-edge, state-of-the-art system to improve organ function by perfusing the organ with nutrient solutions and antibiotics to reduce injury to the lung from cold ischemic transport in an icebox. It is also used to condition the lung with growth factors to enhance lung function and reduce edema in the lung. Overall, this results in a better long term life of the transplanted lung," said Dr Vijil Rahulan, Chief of Transplant Pulmonology.

"Dr. Sandeep Attawar and his team of top experts have once again established their supremacy in the country in the lung and heart transplant space. By performing a highly complex procedure, they once again proved they are the best transplant team not just in India, but possibly in the whole of Asia. I congratulate the team and wish them many more successes in the times ahead," said Dr Abhinay Bollineni, Chief Executive Officer, KIMS Hospitals.