Dubai's first kidney transplant set for 2014

Dubai Hospital, one of the hospitals under the Dubai Health Authority network, is now the first hospital in the Emirate to offer kidney transplantation services.

The hospital recently opened the kidney transplantation clinic and the first transplantation will be conducted in mid-2014.

Dr Abdulrazzak Al Madani, CEO of Dubai Hospital, said: “Dubai Health Authority has strived to ensure that the Emirate of Dubai has access to the latest healthcare services in the world and we are driven to diversify the quantity and quality of our services according to the specific healthcare demands and needs of our clients. Dubai Hospital, which has the Renal and Urology Disease Departments, has seen a steep rise in the number of patients with kidney diseases. While we provide dialysis service to hundreds of patients and the numbers are on the rise, we realised there is a need for introducing kidney transplantation services so that patients do not need to travel abroad for this service.”

“By providing this service locally, we will be able to reduce the time these patients spend in hospitals for dialysis, improve their work and exercise capacity, and overall health and life expectancy, so that they lead a normal life and resume their fulltime employment.”

Dubai’s First “Transplantation Clinic” has evoked interest from both nationals and expatriates and the clinic now runs every Monday afternoon.

Dr. Farhad Kheradmand Aljanahi, specialist urologist and transplant surgeon in Dubai Hospital, is leading this initiative and a multidisciplinary transplant committee of DHA is organising the efforts for the “First Kidney Transplant Surgery in Dubai” that will be performed in the second quarter of 2014. Initially, the team will focus on transplantations from live and related donors and the service will be at par with the international transplant guidelines and ethics.

He said: “A large percentage of our patients develop chronic kidney disease as a secondary complication of diabetes and/or high blood pressure, which are both becoming increasingly prevalent in our region. Many of them gradually proceed to end-stage kidney disease and kidney transplantation offers them a better life- both in the short and long term as opposed to treatment with continuous dialysis.”

The Transplantation Surgeries will be performed in collaboration with a specialist transplant team from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Beaumont Hospital, Dublin which hosts Ireland’s National Kidney Transplant Centre and is one of the leading Kidney & Pancreas Transplantation Centers in Europe. They have tremendous experience in the field and have conducted more than 4,000 transplantation surgeries to date under the leadership of world renowned transplantation surgeon – Prof. David Hickey, who is the director of transplantation at the Beaumont Hospital and will oversee the service in Dubai as well.

He said the move will significantly benefit patients who need this service and will be convenient as they do not need to travel abroad.
 

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