Delhi: Doctors remove world's 3rd heaviest kidney, plan to claim Guinness Book of World Records

Doctors of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) claimed to have removed India's heaviest kidney weighing 7.4 kilograms which measured 32 x 21.8 cm in size.

According to the doctors at the hospital, it is the third heaviest kidney in the world.

Health experts say that the normal weight of a kidney ranges from 120 to 150 grams.

A 56-year-old patient, a resident of Delhi was suffering from a genetic disorder called Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD).

ADPKD is an inherited genetic systemic disease occurring in approximately 1 out of every 1,000 individuals. It is a common inherited disorder with close to 12.5 million cases worldwide.

The usual course of this disease is that the patients usually progress to renal failure and subsequently need renal replacement therapy in the form of dialysis and renal transplant. The indication of removing the kidney in such patients is either infection, bleeding, renal tumour and palliation of symptoms, doctors said.

Dr Sachin Kathuria, the Urology Consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said, "Polycystic Kidney Disease is a genetic condition in which fluid-filled cysts develop in both kidneys causing them to swell up, leading to renal failure. The patient started having intolerable pain in his left flank associated with fever and breathing difficulty. We investigated and found that he had internal bleeding and infection within the cysts of his left kidney. It was at this point that we decided to take him up for surgery. Because he did not respond to intravenous antibiotics and the sheer mass was good enough to offer him such a procedure."

"Although the pre-operative scans showed a huge kidney, we did not expect that it would be the heaviest. It had occupied almost the entire abdomen. To put things into perspective, the kidney weighed more than two human newborn babies combined," Dr Sachin added.

He also said that the patient has recovered well and has been discharged. He is presently on dialysis and awaiting a renal transplant.

Previous, medical literature noted that two heavier kidneys were removed, one 9 kilograms (USA) and the other 8.7 kilograms (Netherlands).

"To our knowledge, this is the third heaviest kidney ever to be removed. Currently, the Guinness World Record for the heaviest kidney removed is held by doctors from Dubai Hospital, who removed a 4.25 kg kidney in 2017 from a patient suffering from Polycystic Kidney Disease. Now, we are planning to apply to the Guinness World Records," the doctor added.