Senior Director, Urology, Uro-Oncology, Andrology and Kidney Transplant, BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi
Series overview · 10 articles
Modern Urology: BPH, Stones, Robotic Surgery and Kidney Transplant
November 23, 2025
Modern urology now runs on technology as much as technique: lasers for stones, minimally invasive devices for an enlarged prostate, and robotic platforms for everything from radical prostatectomy to kidney transplant. Dr. Yajvender Pratap Singh Rana, Director of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Andrology and Kidney Transplant at BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi, used his Jivo Masterclass to walk through this full spectrum, drawing on close to 1,100 kidney transplants performed at his centre. This guide introduces a series based on that session.
A specialty transformed by technology
Dr. Rana framed the session around a simple observation: theatres today are full of lasers, mini-endoscopes and robots, and the most common conditions urologists treat, prostate enlargement, kidney stones, and kidney failure requiring transplant, are now managed with techniques that would have been unrecognisable a generation ago. None of his patients require open surgery for prostate disease or stones in the current era, and kidney transplant itself is increasingly performed through mini-incision or fully robotic approaches.
What this series covers
This series works through the modern options for treating an enlarged prostate, from medication to UroLift, Rezum and laser enucleation; how kidney stones of any size are now cleared without incisions; how donor selection and blood- or HLA-incompatible kidney transplants are worked up; how deceased-donor transplant is coordinated in India; what the transplant journey, cost and eligibility criteria look like for an international patient; how transplant rejection is caught and treated; what life after transplant actually involves; the expanding role of robotic surgery in prostate, kidney and bladder cancer; and treatment options for erectile dysfunction and male infertility.
This article is based on a Jivo Masterclass session conducted by Dr. Yajvender Pratap Singh Rana, Director, Urology, Uro-Oncology, Andrology and Kidney Transplant, BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi. The article has been summarised with the assistance of an AI tool from the original masterclass recording. Watch the full Masterclass recording
Looking for a urology or kidney transplant consultation or a second opinion? Get in touch with the Jivo team
This guide is based on a live Jivo Masterclass — Dr. Yajvender Pratap Singh Rana taught doctors across Africa on November 23, 2025.
Watch the full recording, or read the guide above.
FROM THE LIVE Q&A
Dr. Isaya Mando
How do you manage kidney transplants in patients with HIV, or whose immunity is already compromised?
Dr. Yajvender Pratap Singh Rana
These patients do fairly well. CD4 count is checked and optimised before travel, with good medical management started well ahead of transplant so patients only travel once they fall into a suitable category. The immediate transplant risk in HIV-positive patients is similar to other patients, though later opportunistic-infection-related complications run somewhat higher, so immunosuppression is adjusted accordingly, for example avoiding routine ATG in favour of a gentler induction agent so immunity is not suppressed as heavily.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible for you to shed more light on blood group-incompatible transplants? I keep reading the news that these are being done.▼
Yes, blood group-incompatible transplants are done routinely, though they remain the second choice after a compatible donor. The recipient's antibody titre against the donor's blood group determines eligibility: titres up to 1:8 are essentially as good as a compatible transplant, and even up to 1:64 respond to one or two sessions of plasmapheresis. Higher titres, above 1:128, need immunoadsorption column filtration to bring the level down before proceeding. The success rate is good but runs slightly below a fully compatible transplant, with roughly one in 50 patients experiencing hyperacute rejection.
Can we risk a transplant even when the HLA match, for both donor and recipient, is low?▼
Yes, HLA incompatibility alone is not a major problem, even between spouses with no HLA match at all. What actually determines eligibility is the cross match: a negative CDC and flow cross match clears the way for transplant. If CDC is negative but flow is positive, donor-specific antibody testing by the single antigen bead method quantifies the real risk, an MFI reading up to roughly 1,500-2,000 is not a concern, while higher readings call for plasmapheresis first. The key requirement is simply that there should be no antibodies against that particular HLA antigen.
How do you get a compatible cadaveric kidney donation for transplant, and what is the timing involved?▼
Whenever a brain-dead donor is identified anywhere in Delhi NCR, India's national organ transplant authority (NOTTO) is notified and coordinates two brain stem death declarations roughly two hours apart, made jointly by the primary caregiver and a neurointensivist or equivalent specialist. Once the family consents, NOTTO allocates the organ from its waiting list strictly by turn order across hospitals, no single centre can claim it outside that process. From the first declaration to organ harvest is roughly a 12-hour process, with the recipient's dialysis and cross-match run in parallel so the transplant can proceed within six to twelve hours of harvest.
What can be done for cases of transplant rejection where the antibody attacks the new kidney?▼
This is antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), one of two categories of acute rejection alongside cell-mediated rejection (ACR), and a kidney biopsy is needed to tell them apart. Treatment usually starts with methylprednisolone pulses, escalating to anti-thymocyte globulin or plasmapheresis if that isn't enough. In over a decade, hyperacute rejection has not been seen in blood-compatible transplants at this centre, and most rejection today is reversible when caught and treated promptly, the real danger comes from delayed treatment, not from the rejection episode itself.
How does one ethically navigate finding a living donor without pressuring family or friends?▼
Donation has to come from love and compassion, never pressure. What actually works is reframing donation as a chance for the donor to become healthier: the thorough medical workup required for donor clearance means any underlying problem gets caught and treated, so donors go on to outlive their peer group rather than being harmed by donating. Where genuine pressure would otherwise be needed, keeping the recipient on dialysis while continuing to look for a willing donor is the ethical path, alongside broader deceased-donor campaigns to reduce reliance on living donors altogether.
What areas of urology does this masterclass series cover?▼
Benign prostate enlargement, kidney stone management, kidney transplant (including donor selection, deceased-donor transplant, rejection and long-term care), robotic surgery in prostate and kidney cancer, and erectile dysfunction and male infertility treatment.
How many kidney transplants has Dr. Rana's centre performed?▼
Close to 1,100 kidney transplants, including patients who were HIV-positive, hepatitis-positive, paediatric transplants, and blood group- or HLA-incompatible transplants.
In This Series: Advances in Urology, Uro-Oncology and Kidney Transplant
- 1.Modern Urology: BPH, Stones, Robotic Surgery and Kidney Transplant
- 2.Treating an Enlarged Prostate: From Medication to UroLift, Rezum and Laser Surgery
- 3.Kidney Stone Management: Why Stones Are Never a Silent Disease
- 4.Kidney Transplant Donor Selection: Blood Group and HLA-Incompatible Transplants
- 5.Deceased-Donor Kidney Transplant in India: How the NOTTO Process Works
- 6.Kidney Transplant for International Patients: Referral Criteria, Workup and Cost
- 7.Kidney Transplant Rejection: Warning Signs, Diagnosis and Treatment
- 8.Life After Kidney Transplant: Immunosuppression, Diet and Long-Term Care
- 9.Robotic Surgery in Urology: Prostate Cancer, Kidney Tumours and Bladder Cancer
- 10.Erectile Dysfunction and Male Infertility: Shock Wave Therapy, PRP and Surgical Options