Through The Vagina!

Surgeons removed a woman's kidney through her vagina so she could give it to her ailing niece. Because there's so much less stuff in the way then just cutting through your back, right?

This unusual operation hopefully will encourage others to donate because it reduces pain, scarring and recovery time. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said donor Kimberly Johnson (48) and her niece, Jennifer Gilbert (23) were both doing well following operations.

"It was easier than childbirth," said Johnson, who has three children. And a kidney-passing vagina.

Transvaginal kidney removals have been done before to remove cancerous or nonfunctioning kidneys, and other diseased organs have also been removed through mouths and other orifices. Many donated kidneys are removed laparoscopically, through small keyhole incisions. But hospital officials think this may be the first time a donor kidney was removed through the vagina.

The operation left three pea-size scars on the woman's abdomen and one hidden in her navel. Surgeons hope the procedure will lead more women to become donors, knowing that the thought of surgery performed through the vagina isn't at all tramatic sounding.

Johnson said the operation was less painful than gall bladder surgery and she is recovering more quickly than Gilbert's father, who gave his daughter a kidney 12 years ago. Well of course, his vagina must be tiny. Gilbert needed the first transplant because repeated infections had destroyed the kidneys she was born with. She needed the second after she began suffering chronic rejection.

More than 300 such surgeries have been performed worldwide, mostly gall bladder and appendix removal through the mouth, anus and vagina. There has been some resistance in the medical community because of concerns, for example, that stomach acid could leak into the abdominal cavity in operations where organs were removed through the mouth. There is also concerned about contamination. In Johnson's case, a plastic bag placed into her abdominal cavity through a tiny incision protected the donated kidney from contamination by bacteria and other organisms in her vagina. Johnson was chosen because she has had a hysterectomy, which made the operation easier, but the procedure could be used without affecting women's ability to give birth.

More than 78,000 people are on the national waiting list to receive kidneys from deceased donors, many of whom will be glad to see their organs harvested through thier vagina aftger their dead rather than convential methods. The number of living donor transplants has tripled since laparoscopic removal debuted in 1995, providing an alternative to so-called "shark bite" abdominal incisions. He hopes advances such as the vaginal removal will continue the increase.