Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Tamil Nadu for more cadaver-based transplants

CHENNAI: The Government is holding consultations with the Centre to amend the Transplantation of Human Organs Act so as to make its provisions effective and facilitate more cadaver-based transplants, Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj said Thursday.

Addressing doctors and students at a continuing medical education programme organised by the nephrology unit of the Kilpauk Medical College on the eve of the World Kidney Day, Mr. Subburaj said cadaver-based transplants had to come up in a big way to help people suffering from chronic renal failure.

Against the backdrop of road traffic accidents claiming an estimated 12,000 lives a year, the Government allowed State-run hospitals to perform cadaver-based transplants using organs harvested from the brain-dead, he said. Even without a mechanism in place, the general hospital had done 15 cadaver-based transplants so far.

What with various hurdles, cadaver-based transplants had not taken off in a big way in the State: only 150 transplants of this category had been performed against around 50,000 procedures conducted annually in the West, he said.

According to Mr. Subburaj, of the 10 million patients with kidney disorders in the world, one million were in India. He highlighted the need for patient education programmes on the importance of maintaining the health of the kidney. Mr. Subburaj said the Government had tightened scrutiny after several illegal kidney transplants came to light some time ago. Following these incidents that were primarily owing to the loopholes in the law, the number of transplants done annually in the State had dropped from 900 to 300. The Government had authorised 51 private hospitals to conduct renal transplants.

Pointing out that a large number of renal failures was triggered by hypertension and diabetes, he called for awareness campaigns to keep the two conditions under check. Since the Government launched the preventive health intervention, “Varumun Kappom,” an estimated two lakh people had been diagnosed with diabetes, and an equal number with hypertension.

K. V. Thiruvengadam, former professor of medicine, Madras Medical College, stressed the importance of evaluating the patient as a whole in an era of specialisation. Spending time on delving into patient history was a healthy habit among clinicians. Calling upon the practitioners to develop a broad perspective, Dr. Thiruvengadam said a clinician should be a jack of all trades and a master of one.

He presented the Lifetime Achievement Awards to the former nephrology chiefs at the college, M. S. Amaresan and M. A. Muthusethupathy.

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