New horizons: Organ and tissue transplantation available at Botkin Hospital

This June, Moscow’s Botkin Hospital introduced new services – organ and tissue transplantations – becoming the second institution under Moscow’s Department of Healthcare to perform this kind of surgery. Before that, similar surgeries were only available at one city hospital – the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine.

Now the Botkin Hospital performs bone marrow and cornea transplant surgeries. In June, its medical staff carried out the first kidney transplant; their patient has already been released from hospital. In the near future, the hospital’s first liver transplant will take place.

Transplant surgeries became available at the Botkin Hospital due to the multidisciplinary nature of services offered at the hospital, plus its experienced and highly qualified staff.

The Shumakov National Medical Research Centre of Transplantology and Artificial Organs, which is a federal entity located in Moscow, has been successfully transplanting donor organs for many year. However, this centre performs surgeries on not only Muscovites, but people from all over Russia, while the Botkin Hospital and the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine focus on treating Moscow residents only.

Moscow has a single waiting list for donor organs. All organ and tissue transplantation surgeries are free of charge.

“The average wait time for a donor organ transplant in Moscow is two years, which is much shorter than in most countries,” said Alexei Shabunin, Chief Physician at the Botkin Hospital. “In Germany, for instance, the average wait time is five years. The main criterion for prioritising patients is the level of the donor organ’s compatibility with the recipient’s body. Carrying out transplant surgeries at the Botkin Hospital, the largest city hospital, allows us to reduce the wait time for surgery for Moscow residents, and make this rare medical service more accessible.”

City hospitals are expanding the list of available medical services, while the doctors are constantly developing and implementing new unique methods for diagnosing and treating various diseases. For instance, doctors at the Botkin Hospital are now successfully implementing an innovative technology for growing liver, which allows for treating patients with advanced cancer.

The Botkin Hospital performs over 67,000 different surgeries annually, with seven percent of them involving high technologies. In most cases, these are minimally invasive endoscopic procedures and surgeries requiring X-ray equipment and CT scans. Since 2013, surgeons have been using the da Vinci robotic system.

A month ago, the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine carried out its first brain surgery in Russia and Europe performed with the help of a robotic system. Using a minimally invasive technique, doctors managed to obtain a sample of a tumuor for more accurate diagnosing and treating the patient.

Doctors at the Veresayev Hospital developed technology for resonance electrical stimulation of the gastrointestinal tract, enabling a quick and surgery-free treatment to restore intestinal motility without resorting to surgeries.

At the Pirogov First City Hospital, there is a centre equipped with state-of-the-art CT and MRI scanners, offering cardiac MRI and MR myocardial perfusion – unique examinations for patients with coronary artery disease.