Dr. Vipin Kaverappa calls upon people to donate organs

Mysore/Mysuru: World Kidney Day is a global campaign to create awareness on the health of kidneys. It is celebrated on the second Thursday of March every year.

People with diabetes, hypertension and family history of kidney ailments should be more cautious of the kidney function and get their bodies screened once a year. The symptoms of poor kidney function are swelling of legs, face, tiredness, high blood pressure, etc. Ignoring this may lead to chronic kidney failure, which may demand dialysis or transplant in the end-stage.

Manipal Hospitals are amongst India’s largest centres performing kidney transplants. They have a specialised team of Nephrologists, Kidney Transplant Surgeons and Urologists who work together to diagnose and treat the entire gamut of kidney-related conditions in the best possible way.

Manipal Hospital, Mysuru, is a NABH accredited hospital with high-end laboratory to run diagnostics for acute and chronic kidney diseases. They perform tests like urine albumin, blood creatinine, ultrasound and renal biopsy to detect any damage to the kidney. Renal biopsy is a procedure where a piece of kidney tissue is removed and observed under a microscope to analyse damage or disease condition of the kidneys.

The multi-disciplinary team of experts in the hospital together will decide the best choice of treatment based on the severity of the patient’s condition. Usually, the initial stage of kidney disorder is treated with medication. However, in advanced cases of chronic kidney disease, either dialysis or transplants are considered as the choice of treatment.

Around 800 dialysis are performed every month in Manipal Hospital, Mysuru.

A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure of removing a kidney from a donor and placing it in a recipient. The donor can be living or brain dead. In Manipal Hospital, the team of transplant experts have successfully handled complicated cases like incompatible blood group kidney transplants and many others.

The preventive measure which one can adopt to avoid kidney problems are appropriate management of diabetes, strict blood pressure control, obesity management, maintaining a healthy diet, drinking sufficient water, not smoking, exercising regularly and limiting over-the-counter medicines like ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen, etc.

Speaking on the occasion of World Kidney Day, Dr. P.T. Vipin Kaverappa, Consultant Nephrology & Transplant Physician at Manipal Hospital, Mysuru, has called upon people to come forward for organ donation and advised people with end stage renal disease to undergo transplantation.

“The success rate of organ transplantation is high when the family members come forward to donate their organs. We need to create awareness on organ donation since the organs from brain dead person saves many lives, giving hope to many waiting to live longer,” he said.