In a historic breakthrough for medical science, a team of American surgeons announced on Sunday that they had successfully performed the world’s first in-human bladder transplant.
The complex and pioneering surgery was carried out at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre and involved leading experts from Keck Medicine of USC and UCLA Health.
This landmark achievement, years in development, signals a major step forward in urological surgery and transplant medicine.
It has the potential to reshape treatment for patients with non-functioning or severely damaged bladders, offering a new alternative to dialysis and long-term catheterisation.
The surgical team was led by Professor Inderbir Gill, founding executive director of USC Urology, and Dr Nima Nassiri, a urologic transplant surgeon and director of UCLA’s vascularised composite bladder allograft transplant programme.
“This surgery marks a historic moment in medicine and could revolutionise the treatment of patients with ‘terminal’ bladders,” said Gill. “Transplantation has already become lifesaving for many organs, and now the bladder can join that list.”
A Patient’s New Lease On Life
The patient, whose identity remains undisclosed, faced multiple serious health challenges.
Over five years ago, cancer surgery removed most of his bladder, and subsequent renal cancer led doctors to remove both kidneys, making him dependent on dialysis.
For seven years, he had lived without a functioning bladder and relied on dialysis to survive.
“This first attempt at bladder transplantation was over four years in the making,” explained Dr Nassiri. “For carefully selected patients, it offers a promising new option.”
The operation involved a combined kidney and bladder transplant, making it both medically intricate and highly innovative.
Surgeons first transplanted the kidney, then the bladder, and connected the two organs in a surgical procedure lasting approximately eight hours.
Remarkably, the newly transplanted kidney began producing a high volume of urine immediately, and for the first time in seven years, the patient was able to urinate naturally.
“There was no need for further dialysis, and the urine drained properly into the new bladder,” said Nassiri.
Despite the complexity, the patient is reported to be recovering well and making positive progress.
This successful transplant offers a new therapeutic avenue for patients with bladder failure, a condition that has previously had few viable treatment options.
The procedure may also lay the groundwork for future advancements in composite organ transplantation, potentially helping those suffering from complex urological disorders and cancer-related organ loss.
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