JODHPUR: A team from five departments of AIIMS-Jodhpur conducted a trial surgery before pitching for the actual one to tackle a rare and complex condition, of which only 80 cases have been reported globally so far.
Headed by the paediatric surgery department, the surgery that lasted for eight hours was successfully conducted last week. The minor patient is now on the path of fast recovery.
HoD (Paediatrics) Arvind Sinha, said that a 10-year-old child from Hyderabad, Vishnu had come to the institute with a rare condition called Abernethy Malformation - Portacaval Shunt, of which only 80 cases have been described so far in the world.
"In this condition, there is an abnormal communication between the blood supply to the liver and the main blood vessel of the body, which leads to shunting of blood away from the liver. This can lead to further breathing problems, liver failure and brain problems," said Sinha, adding that the boy was not growing well and was having trouble concentrating, leading to poor school performance.
He was brought to AIIMS Jodhpur at Department of Interventional Radiology first where his condition was diagnosed but could not be managed because of a large size fistula, which was more than 2.5 cms wide.
"Intense discussions were held with interventional radiology regarding the condition. The surgical approach was practiced on a dead body (cadaver) under anatomy to safely manage the case, after which, the fistula was divided in a complex procedure lasting for eight hours," Sinha said.
For this procedure, a combined team of paediatric surgery and cardiothoracic surgery was created to tackle the condition.
After the successful completion of the procedure, the child was kept in the ICU for 48 hours and is now completely on the road to recovery.
