Surgeons saved a 33-year-old woman from Lviv by removing a malignant tumor from her only kidney.

Surgeons at the St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv have saved the only kidney of a 33-year-old local woman affected by cancer. She was born with a single kidney, and to avoid subjecting her to dialysis or a transplant, specialists first removed the kidney, excised the malignant tumor, and then reimplanted the kidney back into her body.

Lviv resident Olga Nazarkevych was born with one kidney. This condition did not affect her quality of life until May of this year when doctors diagnosed her with carcinoma – kidney cancer. The location of the tumor made it inaccessible for a standard removal operation, and surgery was urgently needed, as stated by the hospital.

“The carcinoma was situated in such a way that it was impossible to remove it from the patient's body. This illness did not allow us to wait for a donor organ. We didn't know how much longer the woman could survive without surgical intervention. Therefore, we had to make a quick and radical decision. We took a risk — the success of the operation was 50-50. First, we had to remove the only kidney, perform the tumor resection outside of the patient’s body, and then carry out an autotransplantation. That is, we transplanted the patient’s own kidney back to her. And we succeeded,” said Volodymyr Dmytriv, head of the urology department at the hospital.

On December 23, five months have passed since the operation. The young woman is feeling great and is immensely grateful to the doctors for saving her life.