A team of doctors on Thursday successfully performed what was claimed as India’s first uterus transplant surgery, in which uterus of a 44-year-old woman was transplanted in her 21-year-old daughter.
A team of 12 doctors, headed by Dr Shailesh Puntambekar, performed the surgery which started at 12 noon on Thursday and ended at 9.15 pm at Galaxy Care Laparoscopy Institute in Pune.
The younger woman was born without uterus, Dr Puntambekar said.
“The patient wanted to have her own baby and was not ready for adoption or surrogacy. Since they knew about the uterus transplant, they approached us and accepted the surgery option,” he said.
Fortunately, her mother was found to be a medically suitable uterus donor for her. The younger woman — the patient — is now under observation and will be kept in Intensive Care Unit for some days.
Dr Puntambekar said this was the first uterus or womb transplant in India.
The first successful uterine transplant was carried out in Sweden in 2013. Twenty-five such surgeries have been performed around the world so far.
Dr Puntambekar said that his surgical team had travelled to Sweden to learn the transplant procedure and practised on human cadavers in Germany and the US.