Chennai Hospital Successfully Performs 2 Uterus Transplants

Uterus transplants are a new modality that gives hope to young women who are suffering from hypoplasia a condition where the uterus is underdeveloped or absent.

Surgery (Image for representation)

Chennai: Two uterus transplants were successfully performed here on a patient from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh by a team of doctors, including an expert from the Czech Republic.

Gleneagles Global Health City (GGHC), a leading multi-organ transplant centre in Asia, performed the transplants here, a release from the hospital said on Thursday. Professor Dr Jiri Fronek, is the expert from abroad. He is head of Transplant Surgery Department, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic, the hospital said.

Uterus transplants are a new modality that gives hope to young women who are suffering from hypoplasia a condition where the uterus is underdeveloped or absent.

Explaining, Dr Padmapriya Vivek, Head of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Fertility Medicine, GGHC, said, "We have performed 2 extremely challenging uterus transplants on young women under the expertise of Dr. Jiri Fronek."

The 28-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu had to undergo a plasma exchange ahead of her 16-hour-long transplant surgery as her blood group did not match the donor's. She was put under a 3-day observation before commencing the transplant.

The other was a 24-year-old patient from Andhra Pradesh who underwent a 15-hour-long open transplant surgery as it took the team nearly 8 hours to retrieve the uterus from her donor.

In both the cases, the donors were the mothers of the patients. "Uterus transplant is a potential and promising treatment for women suffering from uterus factor infertility - a condition that is congenital or acquired," the hospital said in the release.

"By introducing this process in India where it is still at a nascent stage, we have been able to provide young women an opportunity to experience motherhood. With multiple technical advancements, doctors from Gleneagles Global Health City are sure about streamlining the uterus transplant process," said Prof Fronek, who led the complex process along with Dr Padmapriya Vivek, Head of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Fertility Medicine.

Elaborating, Dr Joy Varghese, Director of Hepatology & Transplant Hepatology, GGHC, said, "Uterus transplant is an innovative advancement in medicine...The patient from Tamil Nadu underwent a plasma exchange procedure before the transplant. This feat is a first of its kind that we have initiated."

Congratulating the team, Dr Alok Khullar, CEO, GGHC, and Anurag Yadav, CEO, IHH Health Care India, said, "One in 5,000 women in the country suffers from uterus-factor infertility."

With commercial surrogacy banned in India, such transplant offers women an opportunity to become mothers and experience the joy of motherhood on their own, Dr Padmapriya said and added that child birth is the ultimate aim of this transplant.

"Child birth is very emotional... It is very depressing for a human being to know that they cannot bear a child on their own. The uterus transplant provides such people a chance to carry their own child to experience motherhood themselves," she said.