Organ transplantation

Organ transplantation is only the hope for patients with end stage organ failure. When a transplant is performed using an organ or tissue from a 'brain-dead, heart-beating' cadaver (dead person), the procedure is referred to as a cadaver transplant. Cadaver transplant programmes are well established in the West. Such a program has been started in India, too, but has a long way to go to become a viable alternative to a living donor programme.

The law permits you to bring an unrelated donor as a potential donor. Only after the Authorization Committee has given its approval, can an organ be removed from such a voluntary unrelated donor and transplanted into your body. Alternatively, you may choose to register yourself for a cadaver transplant.

Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) has been designated as the Appropriate Authority for Cadaver Transplantation (AACT) in Telangana while the NTR University of Health Sciences has been designated for the job in Andhra Pradesh. Through a website (www.jeevandan.gov.in), Telangana government has made registration mandatory for patients through hospitals.

Organs that can be transplanted are heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus. Tissues include bones, tendons (both referred to as musculoskeletal grafts), cornea, skin, heart valves, nerves and veins. Worldwide, the kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed by the liver and then the heart. Cornea and musculoskeletal grafts are the most commonly transplanted tissues; these outnumber organ transplants by more than tenfold. As many as eight lives could be saved by transplanting organs of a brain dead person, if the kin agree to donate organs in time.

Even two decades after the enactment of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) in 1994, there has been no considerable rise in number of cadaver organ transplantations in India as there is no awareness on the issue. However, of late central and state governments are focusing on the need to promote cadaver transplants. In January this year, a revolutionary surgery was performed by doctors at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Kochi, where the country’s first-hand transplantation surgery carried out.