Clove
02-04-2009, 07:28 AM
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2008700388_medical03.html
Doctors remove donated kidney through vagina
BALTIMORE — Surgeons removed a woman's kidney through her vagina so she could give it to her ailing niece, an unusual operation they hope will encourage others to donate because it reduces pain, scarring and recovery time.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said donor Kimberly Johnson, 48, and her niece, Jennifer Gilbert, 23, were both doing well after operations Thursday.
Transvaginal kidney removals have been done before to remove cancerous or nonfunctioning kidneys, and other diseased organs have been removed through mouths and other orifices. Many donated kidneys are removed laparoscopically, through small keyhole incisions.
But hospital officials think this may be the first time a donor kidney was removed through the vagina. Gilbert, of Baltimore, needed the first transplant because repeated infections had destroyed the kidneys she was born with. She needed the second after she began suffering chronic rejection.
Surgeons hope the procedure will lead more women to become donors, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, chief of the transplant division at Johns Hopkins, who led the team that performed the surgery. Quicker recovery and less pain are the key benefits of the new technique, said Montgomery and Dr. Anthony Kalloo, the director of the Division of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins and a pioneer of the method of using natural orifices for organ removal.
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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I always knew vaginas weren't reaching their full potential... truth really IS stranger than fiction.
Doctors remove donated kidney through vagina
BALTIMORE — Surgeons removed a woman's kidney through her vagina so she could give it to her ailing niece, an unusual operation they hope will encourage others to donate because it reduces pain, scarring and recovery time.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said donor Kimberly Johnson, 48, and her niece, Jennifer Gilbert, 23, were both doing well after operations Thursday.
Transvaginal kidney removals have been done before to remove cancerous or nonfunctioning kidneys, and other diseased organs have been removed through mouths and other orifices. Many donated kidneys are removed laparoscopically, through small keyhole incisions.
But hospital officials think this may be the first time a donor kidney was removed through the vagina. Gilbert, of Baltimore, needed the first transplant because repeated infections had destroyed the kidneys she was born with. She needed the second after she began suffering chronic rejection.
Surgeons hope the procedure will lead more women to become donors, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, chief of the transplant division at Johns Hopkins, who led the team that performed the surgery. Quicker recovery and less pain are the key benefits of the new technique, said Montgomery and Dr. Anthony Kalloo, the director of the Division of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins and a pioneer of the method of using natural orifices for organ removal.
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
--
I always knew vaginas weren't reaching their full potential... truth really IS stranger than fiction.