Examiner

Johns Hopkins doctors have performed what they believe is the first-ever surgery to remove a healthy donor kidney through a small incision in the back of the patient’s vagina.

The patient had less pain and a shorter recovery time — benefits that could encourage more kidney donations, doctors said.

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The surgery, performed Thursday, eliminated the need for a five- to six-inch incision in the abdomen of the patient, a 48-year-old woman from Lexington Park, Md., who donated her kidney to her niece.

Instead, the patient has only a few small scars on her abdomen.

Doctors made a smile-shaped incision in the back of her vagina and inserted an inflatable bag through a tube to hold the incision open. The kidney was then pulled out intact, Montgomery said.