An infected kidney weighing 2.75 kilo, claimed to be the world’s largest in size, was removed by surgeons at a city hospital here from a person suffering from autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).
The patient was diagnosed to have ADPKD last year and was undergoing dialysis and had been planned for a kidney transplant. Surgeons at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) took the decision to remove both the kidneys of the patient as a lifesaving procedure.
The Guinness Book of World Records reports a kidney weighing 2.15 kilo as world’s largest kidney, which was removed in Dhule, Maharashtra in 2011.
According to doctors, the patient was admitted to hospital in March. He was suffering from chronic renal failure with severe pain in the abdomen, blood in urine and high-grade fever. His condition was deteriorating because of severe infection in the kidneys causing high-grade fever, sepsis and blood in urine. He was losing a lot of blood. A decision was taken to remove both the kidneys as a lifesaving procedure. He was undergoing dialysis and had been planned for a kidney transplant. He was diagnosed to have ADPKD for the past one year, said Dr Manu Gupta, consultant urological surgeon at SGRH, who performed the surgery.
According to Gupta, the procedure was quite challenging as normal kidneys weigh around 130 gram. “This kidney weighed 2.75 kilo, which is 20 times more and was stuck to the surrounding intestines. It took us three hours of difficult dissection to remove the kidney. The second kidney weighing 2.5 kilo was also removed a week later. Altogether, the patient’s body was bearing an extra weight of about 5 kilo,” she said. The patient is recovering well and awaiting kidney transplant.
The development of multiple kidney cysts results in slowly progressive enlargement of the kidney that leads to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in 50 per cent of patients by the sixth decade. Patients may present with haematuria, a urinary tract infection (UTI), abdominal pain, an abdominal mass, kidney failure and hypertension.
Dr Vinant Bhargav, consultant nephrologist concluded that kidney removal was necessary as the condition was very severe and now the patient is recovering well and awaiting kidney transplant. Pre-transplant nephrectomies (removal of kidneys), he said, are occasionally necessary in such situations.
ADPKD is a dominantly inherited genetic systemic disease occurring in 1:700 to 1:1,000 individuals. It is one of the most common inherited disorders with approximately 12.5 million cases worldwide.