On 14th September 2016, the first Simultaneous Pancreas Kidney (SPK) transplantation at Osmania General Hospital (OGH), Hyderabad was performed successfully.

The marathon transplant surgery lasting 23 hours was performed on a 27-year-old patient with Type 1 diabetes with multiple complications including diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy. The patient had developed kidney failure eight years ago and was being dialysed at OGH. The organs were donated by the family of 23-year-old Vijaykumar, a resident of Karnataka, who was declared brain dead at Continental Hospital the previous day.

“The patient needed a pancreas transplantation as the pancreas had stopped producing insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels. Before the surgery, the patient’s blood sugar was 600 mg/dl. He needed 60 units of insulin every day to survive,” said Dr. Ch Madhusudhan, Head, Surgical Gastroenterology department, OGH, who led the team of doctors performing the surgery. Post transplant, the patient’s blood sugar level came down to 135 mg/dl removing the requirement for insulin injections.