Drs. Patrick Luke and Alp Sener make Canadian history
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Division of Urology members, Dr. Patrick Luke and Dr. Alp Sener, made Canadian history when they performed the first living-donor kidney removal for transplant purposes, using a single incision point.
The procedure, a robotic assisted single-site nephrectomy, was performed using the da Vinci robotic surgical system, allowing the surgeons to carefully extract a healthy kidney from kidney donor, Kelley Kunkel.
Kunkel underwent the procedure to help her husband, who was facing kidney failure. She is the first person in the country to have her kidney removed through a small (4-6 cm) incision in her navel.
"We are very fortunate at LHSC to have state-of-the-art da Vinci robotic systems which allow us to take minimally invasive surgery to the next level," said Dr. Sener. "By using robotic assisted Lapro-Endoscopic Single Site Surgery (LESS) on living kidney donors, we are able to minimize risk, shorten recovery times, and return the donor back to their normal day-to-day activities sooner."
This is an important development in living donor transplant surgery, as traditional open stomach organ retrieval, and even the minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery involving three to four incisions, require a longer time to heal and involve more risk to the donor. "Living donors are selflessly offering a part of themselves to another human, with full knowledge that their lives will also be impacted by this gift," said Dr. Patrick Luke, co-director of LHSC's multi-organ transplant program. "If we can utilize technology and medical innovation to help reduce that impact, perhaps more individuals will consider living-donor kidney donation in the future."
Read more about the Kunkel's experience at LHSC here.
