In a groundbreaking procedure at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, doctors successfully performed a kidney transplant surgery. Instead of using traditional anesthesia, the medical team opted for spinal anesthesia. This allowed the patient, 28-year-old John Nicholas, to remain fully awake throughout the procedure while experiencing a pain-free operation. Nicholas, a resident of Chicago, was discharged within 24 hours following the surgery.
This innovative approach not only marks a first for the hospital but also promises to increase transplant accessibility for those at high risk for general anesthesia. Nicholas described the experience of being aware during his surgery procedure as “pretty cool”.
“At one point during surgery, I recall asking, ‘should I be expecting the spinal anesthesia to kick in?’ They had already been doing a lot of work and I had been completely oblivious to that fact. Truly, no sensation whatsoever. I had been given some sedation for my own comfort, but I was still aware of what they were doing. Especially when they called out my name and told me about certain milestones they had reached,” he said.
Nicholas started facing kidney issues at the age of 16 following his battle with Crohn’s disease. Routine lab work revealed declining kidney function and further tests showed inflammation causing damage although the exact cause was never determined. Initially, his mother planned to be his donor but her breast cancer diagnosis prevented her from doing so.
Nicholas then turned to his close friends from Zionsville, Indiana, where he grew up. His best friend, 29-year-old Pat Wise who works at a public health agency responded immediately to Nicholas’s call for donors. Wise was a match and travelled to Chicago where surgeons successfully transplanted one of his kidneys into Nicholas.
Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, Vinayak Rohan, MD, transplant surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Vicente Garcia Tomas, MD anesthesiologist and chief of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, performed the surgery which took place in less than two hours.
“Our hope is that awake kidney transplantation can decrease some of the risks of general anesthesia while also shortening a patient’s hospital stay. Inside the operating room, it was an incredible experience being able to show a patient what their new kidney looked like before placing it inside the body,” said Dr Nadig.
“Doing anesthesia for the awake kidney transplant was easier than many C-sections,” said Dr. Garcia Tomas.
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