Media Coverage of Dr. Shailesh Puntambekar and Galaxy Care Hospital
Pune doctors successfully perform country's first uterus transplant
PUNE: A team of city doctors successfully performed country's first womb (uterus) transplant on a 21-year-old Solapur woman on Thursday.
The woman, who suffers from congenital absence of uterus since birth, was fitted with her mother's womb so that she can conceive normally.
The minimally invasive retrieval of the womb carried out mainly through key hole surgery and its subsequent transplant performed only through open surgery took nine hours.
The surgery has opened up another way to motherhood besides surrogacy or adoption for Indian women who do not have a uterus, or who have a uterus that does not function.
Pune's Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute (GCLI), where the surgery was done, has been granted a licence by the state's Directorate of Health Services to carry out the uterus transplant.
Uterus from a live donor (In Pune’s case, the donors are their mothers) will be transplanted. The procedure is expected to take about 10 hours, and has a high chance of rejection.
"The surgery has been successful. The condition of the recipient and donor is stable. Another 48 hours will be crucial in determining the outcome the surgery," said oncosurgeon Shailesh Puntambekar who performed the surgery along with team of 11 other doctors.