Six-way kidney transplant in US

Baltimore: Surgeons in the US have transplanted six kidneys simultaneously, an operation believed to be the first of its kind, hospital officials announced Tuesday.

The transplants were conducted on Saturday when a donor was found to be a match for one of six transplant candidates. Five patients had a willing donor whose kidney was incompatible with theirs, but it did match another in the group.

That meant there were six people who could receive an organ.

The 10-hour surgeries used six operating rooms and nine surgical teams.

The six-way transplant follows a quintuple transplant performed in 2006 at the hospital and several triple transplants. Last week, doctors at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital performed simultaneous transplants of four kidneys.