Twin’s Kidney Transplanted Into Brother : Medicine: Procedure is the second in Orange County. Doctors predict long, healthy lives for the close 25-year-old identical siblings.

Waking up the morning after their kidney transplant surgeries, 25-year-old identical twins Alfredo and Juan Gutierrez had the same question.

“The first thing they said was: ‘How’s my brother?’ ” Beverly Rogers, the nurse monitoring their recovery, said Friday.

The love and concern shared by the brothers should ensure that they both live long, healthy lives, their doctors say.

Surgeons at UC Irvine Medical Center on Thursday transplanted Juan’s left kidney into his twin, Alfredo, in a rare procedure that was the first for the hospital and only the second in Orange County.

“This is the unique situation in kidney transplantation,” said Dr. Donald Martin, the surgeon who grafted the donor kidney to Alfredo.

Although there is a risk in most transplants that the recipient’s body will reject the donor organ, Martin said there are virtually no such concerns with identical twins, whose organ tissue is the same. For Alfredo, that means he can recover without having to take anti-rejection drugs, Martin said.

The brothers, who live in Huntington Beach, were doing well Friday. Alfredo was reported in fair condition in the intensive care unit, and Juan was in good condition.

The transplant was done in a 4 1/2-hour procedure in adjoining operating rooms. Juan’s kidney was removed in what his surgeon, Dr. Ervin Ruzics, called a perfect operation. Martin then grafted the organ below Alfredo’s two kidneys, which were left in his body.

The doctors said a “perfectly healthy” Juan provided his brother with a “beefy” kidney that is expected to take up the slack of Alfredo’s two failed organs.

In the 40 years that kidney transplants have been performed, 59 have involved identical twins, said Fran Tardiff, a hospital spokeswoman. The previous twin transplant in Orange County was in 1974 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange.

More than 20,000 people are on waiting lists nationwide for donor kidneys. In 1992, 10,108 patients received transplants.

Alfredo’s kidneys failed last year because of lingering complications from an untreated case of strep throat he had as a boy in Mexico.

Although people with failed kidneys can rely on dialysis for extended periods, Alfredo’s health had been deteriorating because of related problems with high blood pressure and his heart, Martin said.

As his condition worsened, Alfredo was forced to give up his jobs and his weight dropped to 40 pounds below his brother’s 180 pounds.

Juan, who lives with Alfredo and his fiancee in Huntington Beach, is expected to be released from the hospital early next week. In about six weeks, Juan should be able to return to his jobs making pizza by night and delivering advertising circulars by day, Martin said. Alfredo’s condition will be monitored further before a decision is made on his release.

Their parents, who traveled here from their home in Acapulco to be with their sons during the operation, said Juan’s donation of his kidney was not surprising because he and Alfredo have been virtually inseparable since they were born.