In what has been described as a rare situation, doctors in a city hospital performed a single stage surgery to create a food passage and also rectal passage in an infant.
The male child born to a couple Kalamma and Gundaiah of Rangapur in Kalwakurthy on December 27 had severe deficiencies including a complex and rare oesophageal and rectal anomaly, and the local doctors there promptly referred for a paediatric surgery.
The newborn was shifted to Nice Hospital for Children in the city and in an effort that lasted more than five hours, paediatric surgeon and former superintendent of Niloufer Hospital, Dr. N.C.K. Reddy corrected the anomalies. The condition was severe and the infant also had lot of respiratory problem, according to the doctors.
“These conditions are not rare but what complicated the situation for child was the pouch colon, which is very rare,” said Dr. Reddy. Pouch colon basically is a condition where it balloons into a big pouch and communicates with the urinary tract.
“In decades of experience with different congenital conditions, I have not come across such a problem,” he said.The long surgery had the infant being handled at three levels on his body and apart from addressing the pouch colon, food passage and rectal opening were created.
“Even when taken up, these are done in multiple stages, but we did it in a single surgery to avoid pressure on the infant and check agony of the parents,” he said.
The infant was kept in the ICU for two weeks and later under observation in the general ward for a week. According to the doctor, the 24-days-old has recuperated fast and ready for discharge.
“The baby should grow normally and without any complications related to these problems,” Dr. Reddy added.