Top News

King’s College Hospital London in Dubai has launched its Kidney Transplant Centre, expanding its organ transplantation programme that began with its liver transplant centre, which has achieved many firsts for the UAE. The new centre brings together expertise in nephrology, transplant surgery, anaesthesia, intensive care, diagnostics, and long-term follow-up to provide comprehensive kidney transplant care under one roof.

The centre supports patients with advanced kidney disease, providing an integrated pathway from assessment and donor evaluation to surgery and long-term follow-up.

The programme includes living donor and paired kidney transplants. Living donor transplants can be arranged with relatives up to the fourth degree in accordance with UAE law. Paired kidney transplants allow two donor-recipient pairs to exchange compatible kidneys when the original donor is incompatible with the intended recipient.

The programme is supported by a dedicated transplant team, with all living donor surgeries performed using fully robotic, minimally invasive techniques to support faster recovery, smaller scars, and an earlier return to normal life. It is also backed by an active research programme in transplantation and kidney care.

Kimberley Pierce, CEO of King’s College Hospital London in Dubai, said: "The launch of our Kidney Transplant Centre marks an important step in the growth of advanced transplant services at King’s. Kidney transplantation can be life-changing for patients with kidney failure, but delivering it well takes specialist donor assessment, surgical expertise, intensive care support, long-term nephrology follow-up, and a team that can coordinate every stage of the journey. By bringing those services together in one dedicated programme, we are making it easier for patients in the UAE to access highly specialised transplant care closer to home. Our ambition does not stop there. Building on the achievements of our liver transplant programme, we are committed to making King’s a centre of excellence for multi-organ transplantation in the region."

All doctors in the kidney transplant programme work full-time at the hospital, ensuring continuity of care throughout the patient journey.

Dr Siddiq Anwar, consultant transplant nephrologist, said: "Kidney transplantation offers many patients with end-stage kidney disease the chance to regain their health, independence, and quality of life. Successful transplantation starts with careful patient selection, thorough donor and recipient evaluation, and close coordination between nephrologists, surgeons, and specialist nurses. Living donor and paired transplant pathways can open the door to transplantation for patients who may otherwise face longer waits, while also allowing us to plan surgery in a structured and closely monitored way. Our transplant practice also sits alongside an active research programme, which keeps the care we deliver aligned with the latest evidence in the field."

Patients undergo medical, surgical, and psychosocial assessments to evaluate transplant suitability and donor safety. The programme supports the complete transplant pathway, from recipient assessment and donor workup to surgery and long-term post-transplant monitoring.

Dr Rehan Saif, consultant Hepato Pancreato Biliary & Abdominal Multi-Organ Transplant surgeon, said: "Kidney transplantation is one of the most complex services a hospital can offer because it depends on far more than the technical success of the operation itself. It requires careful donor and recipient assessment, detailed surgical planning, close perioperative monitoring, and long-term follow-up after transplant. Paired kidney transplantation adds another layer of coordination, with two donor procedures and two recipient transplant surgeries taking place simultaneously to allow the exchange to proceed safely for everyone involved. By offering every donor surgery as a fully robotic, minimally invasive procedure, we can make the donation itself less demanding for the people who give this gift. Establishing a dedicated Kidney Transplant Centre with a full-time specialist team allows us to deliver that level of coordination, continuity, and surgical expertise here in Dubai."

Dr Tashfeen Ali, chief medical officer of King’s College Hospital London in Dubai, said: "Launching a dedicated Kidney Transplant Centre reflects the level of clinical infrastructure, governance, and multidisciplinary expertise needed to deliver transplant care safely and consistently. Kidney transplantation is one of the most demanding areas of medicine, requiring close collaboration across nephrology, surgery, anaesthesia, critical care, diagnostics, and long-term follow-up. As we build towards multi-organ transplantation at King’s, the kidney programme will be held to the same standards of governance and clinical outcomes set by our liver transplant programme, which has delivered many firsts for the UAE."

The launch of the Kidney Transplant Centre reflects King’s continued investment in advanced tertiary and quaternary care, providing patients across Dubai, the UAE, and the wider region with access to specialised transplant medicine through a dedicated multidisciplinary service.