Organ donation in India has grown four fold in the last few years however, lack of organ retrieval protocol and experienced staff is limiting transplant of donated organs.
Safe organ retrieval is the cornerstone of successful organ transplant programs. There is a pressing need to train surgeons in the technique of deceased donor organ recovery, but this training is not part of any surgical curriculum at the present time. India does not lack skilled surgeons. Targeted training of identified surgeons to develop specific skill sets can be achieved with short and intense training courses with the appropriate curriculum.
The National Organ retrieval course has been conducted for the past three years in partnership with NOTTO, ISOT, MOHAN Foundation and surgeons from Oxford University, and has been designed in collaboration with international leaders in organ transplantation to train aspiring transplant surgeons the tips and techniques for a safe organ recovery. This course has trained 115 Indian surgeons in this technique, of whom half are from the public sector. This course has won the BMJ award for excellence in Medical Education 2017 for its high impact teaching.
Dr Anand Subramanyam, Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Sheshadripuram, Bengaluru and Dr Sonal Asthana, Consultant, HPB and transplant Surgeon, Aster CMI Hospital, are the course directors.
There will be a live webcast of a retrieval procedure on an anatomical specimen ( cadaver model) by Dr. Isabel Quiroga, Clinical Lead for Organ Retrieval, Oxford University, Hospitals NHS Trust, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom, on May 4 between 11 am and 1 pm. This will include heart recovery, abdominal organ recovery and renal recovery which will be webcast from the MOHAN foundation, transplantationliver.com and the NOTTO websites live. This will also be webcast as a facebook live and a twitter event.
There is an entirely separate module for renal surgeons, and a new session on recovery for pancreas for
transplantation. This covers renal -only retrieval ( in situations where there are no abdominal surgeons to
retrieve ). Renal surgeons will also have an opportunity to perform renal implantation in a cadaver. We have
three dedicated renal tutors for the lab work.
This course is open to surgeons performing Liver, Kidney, Pancreas & Intestinal organ retrieval and transplantation and Cardiac surgeons with an interest in heart and lung transplantation.
