The Polonnaruwa China-Sri Lanka Friendship National Nephrology Hospital has successfully performed its first pediatric kidney transplant, marking the first such procedure carried out at a peripheral hospital in Sri Lanka outside a dedicated children’s hospital.
The Ministry of Health and Mass Media said the surgery was performed on May 7 on a 15-year-old patient, with the kidney donated by the child’s father. Hospital Director Specialist Dr Dilka Saranasinghe said both the child and the donor had recovered well following the procedure.
Officials said the hospital is now prepared to perform pediatric kidney transplants for children across the country based on medical requirements — extending advanced nephrology care beyond Colombo for the first time.
The ministry noted that such procedures are often carried out in India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States, but overseas treatment remains financially difficult for many Sri Lankan families. The Polonnaruwa milestone adds domestic capacity to a service that previously required families to travel abroad or to a tertiary children’s facility in the capital.
The hospital, built with Chinese assistance, was designated the national nephrology centre after its opening and has progressively expanded its adult transplant programme. The pediatric transplant follows the Health Ministry’s recent expansion of cath labs to 16 hospitals, part of a broader policy of decentralising specialist procedures from Colombo to district and provincial hospitals.
