Rare pediatric surgery performed in Mangaluru hospital

MANGALURU: A rare feat of enabling a child of seven years to eat (swallow) food by himself for the first time in his life has brought cheers to the family and doctors alike.

The child didn’t have a part of food pipe when he was born and he also had an abnormal connection between food pipe and wind pipe (Esophageal atresia with Tracheo-esophageal fistula). Despite surgical correction of the anomaly in the new born at some other hospital, the child couldn’t swallow food because the food pipe had narrowed significantly.

Parents brought the child to department of Pediatric Surgery, Justice K S Hegde Charitable Hospital in Deralakatte at the age of 6 years. The child was severely malnourished and weighed just six kgs. On evaluation, his food pipe was severely narrowed and couldn’t function properly. A tube was inserted into the stomach directly (gastrostomy) so as to feed the child for adequate weight gain required for a definitive major surgery. After the child gained weight, a new food pipe was re-constructed using a part of the stomach brought through the chest into the neck thus establishing continuity.

Surgeries were done in three stages over a period of one year by team of Pediatric surgeons headed by Professor Sandeep Rai B. The post-operative course was hard. The patient required ventilator and Intensive Critical Care support from interdisciplinary team of Anaethesiologists, Pediatricians, Pulmonologists and Nursing staff to bring him out successfully.

Hemanth Shetty, public relations co-ordinator of the hospital said that, these surgeries are rare and are usually done within one year of age. The challenge was to create a long food pipe from a small stomach. After this, child now at the age of seven years, is eating his heart out for the very first time since birth, he added.