SMC Celebrates 2,000th Case of Kidney Transplant
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SMC’s Organ Transplantation Center led by Director Sung-Joo Kim successfully performed the 2,000th kidney transplant.
Ever since its first kidney transplant on February 14th, 1995, kidney transplantation without immunosuppressant first time in Korea in 2013, and Korea’s first ABO-incompatible transplantation among three families in 2014, the Center achieved the 2,000th kidney transplantation on August 13th, 2015.
The patient of the case have undergone dialysis and other treatments for genetic Alport syndrome since 1997 and is now recovering after receiving the father’s kidney.
The patient only known by his or her last name, Yang, said, “I’ve suffered from this genetic disease and uremia, ever since I was little, so my daily life was very tough. I was afraid before the surgery, but I’m very happy now as I’ve never been so healthy. And this is more meaningful as I’m the 2,000th recipient.”
Director Kim said, “2,000 cases in just 20 years is a big record not just in Korea but anywhere in the world. Going forward, we’ll research and treat patients harder for those who are still waiting for kidney transplantation.”
The kidney transplantation team at the Center are led by Director Kim, Prof. Ha-Young Oh, Prof. Wooseong Huh, Prof. Hye Ryoun Jang, Prof. Jae Berm Park, Prof. Hyo-jun Park, Prof. Hee Yeon Cho, and Prof. Eun-Suk Kang. The team has so far performed 1,247 live donor kidney transplantations and 735 deceased donor transplantations.