Scarless Kidney SurgeryPosted By: Lauren Vance Date last updated: 4/24/2009 3:45:25 PM
Doctors hope single incision kidney transplant surgery will encourage others to donate.
BALTIMORE, Md. (WUSA) --- The University of Maryland Medical Center has removed a kidney from a living donor in a way that leaves no scars.
Kristen McLoughlin, 22, became motivated to become a donor after her sister passed away 3 years ago.
"My sister was killed in a car accident 3 years ago, and were able to donate some of her organs. Knowing that she was such a giving person it motivated me," shares McLoughlin.
Kristen has now become a trailblazer. She is the first person in Maryland and only the 3rd person in the United States to undergo a rare kidney donation procedure called single port surgery.
Transplant surgeon, Dr. Rolf Barth explains, "We were able to use a special port, to put our instruments and our cameras and do the whole operation through that incision inside the belly button."
Transplant surgeon Rolf Barth says once the kidney is detached, its gently put in a sterile bag and slipped through an expanded opening in the navel with special instruments.
Dr. Barth says doing the surgery this way makes the surgery and recovery so much easier on the donor.
"It leaves a patient without any visible scar. We can do a surgery that offers the ability to not only take absolutely fantastic but long term they don't end up with a scar; I think that's good for the patient," Dr. Barth explains.
Kristen hopes her story inspires others.
"I am just so happy that I was in good health to be able to do it," says McLoughlin.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=84793&catid=28
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