Karuna Kumar, a private employee and his wife Asha Jyothy had almost given up hope when they found that their 40-day-old son, Lalith Adithya, was struggled to breathe and consume milk.
After taking the child to Rainbow Super speciality Children’s Hospital, doctors detected a swelling at the back of the tongue. The child was producing grunting sound while breathing and at times choking spells while feeding. This was owing to the swelling, which was blocking the air and food passage, said R. Vidyasagar, visiting paediatric ENT surgeon at the hospital.
Traditionally, the swelling or a lump is removed externally by cutting through the neck, jaw bone and tongue. This leads to problems like a long stay in ICU, difficulty feeding and faulty jaw bone growth, besides increasing the treatment expenditure, he explained.
“Though it was complex and challenging, we tried the trans-oral endoscopic approach on May 14. We gave anaesthesia and passed both endoscope and radiofrequency probe through the small mouth opening. We successfully removed the swelling without damaging nerves or blood vessels,” said Mr. Vidyasagar.
The baby was discharged in a couple of days and is healthy. The swelling was a congenital abnormality and the chances of it recurring are negligible, he claimed at a press conference here on Saturday.
Doctors S. Ramprasad, Rakshay, B. Raju and D.V.S. Sridhar were part of the paediatric ICU team. Parents of the child were also present on the occasion and said the baby was doing well.
