Jipmer upgrades its emergency, inpatient dialysis unit at Rs 2.04 crore, dedicates to nation

PUDUCHERRY: Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) has upgraded its emergency and inpatient dialysis unit at a cost of Rs 2.04 crore. The upgraded dialysis facility has a state-of-the-art automated, dual-stage reverse osmosis water treatment plant with a facility for heat disinfection, which provides ‘ultrapure water’ for dialysis treatment, said a release from the institute.

In addition, it has four haemodiafiltration machines costing Rs 48 lakh. This will allow the facility to offer a new advanced dialysis modality known as ‘online haemodiafiltration’, which improves the long-term survival of patients on regular dialysis treatment. It is also useful in treating patients with sepsis-related acute kidney injury.

The release claimed that Jipmer is the only institution in Puducherry and the first government institution in south India with facilities for online haemodiafiltration using ultrapure water. Jipmer has been performing kidney transplants since 2012. The institute has so far performed 320 kidney transplants including 47 last year. Most of the transplants were covered under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (ABPMJAY) and the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).

Jipmer started performing kidney transplants across the blood group barrier called 'ABO incompatible kidney transplantation' in 2023. This allows a person to receive a kidney from a donor with a mismatched blood group. Three such transplants have been performed in the last five months, said the release.

Jipmer has been running a deceased donor organ transplant program since 2013. Of the 320 kidney transplants performed by the institute, 104 kidneys were harvested from deceased donors. The institute has so far harvested organs and tissues from 51 deceased donors.

Rajya Sabha MP S Selvaganapathy formally inaugurated the upgraded facility in the presence of Jipmer director Dr Rakesh Aggarwal, medical superintendent L N Dorairajan and professor and head (nephrology) Dr Sreejith Parameswaran in a function on Friday.