The 70th kidney transplant surgery was successfully completed last week by the renal transplantation surgeon team at the State Central First Hospital.

In this instance a medical officer volunteered to donate her kidney to her sister.

A surgeon who took part in the renal transplant operation, B.Byambadash, said that “the patient and donor are in good health. The donor left the hospital to return to work next week.  The patient whose kidney was transplanted is now under the physician`s control.”
Renal transplantation therapy costs 12 million MNT in Mongolia. The Health Insurance Fund of Mongolia covers 8 million MNT of the total cost for the operation whenever a patient undergoes renal transplantation surgery.

The National renal transplantation surgeon team has conducted six kidney transplantation operations since January.  The surgeon team is planning to carry out renal transplantations for three more patients in September.

It is estimated that over 200 patients are on the renal transplantation waiting list in Mongolia.

Unfortunately most of the patients on the waiting list are not able to undergo the operation because of a number of reasons including the difficulty in finding a living kidney donor.

According to law in Mongolia, a patient`s biological parents or relatives can be a living kidney donor. But a newly passed law amends the regulation saying that a patient`s kidney donor can be his or her spouse or friend as well as the above mentioned option.