Live kidney donation program soon

by Carol Aloysius

Plans are afoot to launch a kidney donation program for the first time in Sri Lanka, to help those in need of live kidneys needed for transplants.

"We now see a sharp rise of end-stage patients with chronic kidney disease who need transplants to give them a longer quality life. The option that most people now have is dialysis treatment which is a costly and long drawn out process.

As those on dialysis treatment need dialysis a minimum of twice a week, the machines available in the seven State hospitals that have this facility are unable to meet the demand. Therefore, Kidney transplants are a better option", Consultant Nephrologist, Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital (SJH), Dr Chintana Galahitiyawa told the Sunday Observer.

He said that there were over 3,000 patients being treated for chronic kidney disease at the SJH alone. Around 53 of them were on dialysis while 150 of them had undergone kidney transplants. Another 25 patients are waiting for a live kidney to save their lives.

We have plenty of brain dead persons being brought to our hospitals daily whose kidneys are still functioning. If these kidneys are donated by their relatives or even the patients in their lifetime they could be used to meet the huge deficit we now face in finding live kidneys for transplants", he said. Kidney transplant issues rates in Sri Lanka are over 90 percent, he said.

Dialysis treatment is a prolonged process which patients have to undergo for the rest of their lives.