Hue Central Hospital has successfully performed two consecutive kidney transplants using a LifePort kidney preservation system, bringing the total number of such procedures at the hospital to five.
Notably, the fifth transplant involved a donated kidney that underwent approximately 18 hours of cold ischemia during a journey spanning more than 1,800km.
The milestone was achieved in mid-October, when a medical team from the hospital travelled overnight by car for nine hours from Hue to Gia Lai province to retrieve a kidney from a 22-year-old brain-dead donor at Hung Vuong Gia Lai Hospital.
After retrieval, the kidney was immediately placed in a LifePort preservation system before being flown to Hue via Pleiku Airport in Gia Lai and Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The team’s entire journey took approximately 35 hours and 30 minutes and covered more than 1,800km.
Despite the long journey, the transplanted kidney appeared healthy and began producing urine immediately after blood flow was restored during surgery. The recipient's kidney function has since recovered well and remains stable.
In the fourth kidney transplant using LifePort, a 12-year-old boy received a kidney from a 26-year-old brain-dead donor in Hanoi. The transplanted kidney began functioning immediately, producing around 3,000ml of urine in the first 24 hours and maintaining an output of 2,000–2,500ml per day thereafter. The child continues to receive close postoperative monitoring and treatment.
Both recipients are recovering well and remain in stable condition.
Hospital leaders said the successful transplants highlighted LifePort’s role in preserving donated kidneys during long-distance transport. The cases also demonstrated the importance of coordination among organ donation networks, retrieval teams, transport providers and transplant specialists.
