Mettupalayam GH performs complex pancreatic surgery

The procedure was done free of cost

December 07, 2021 11:48 pm | Updated 11:48 pm IST - Coimbatore

A team of doctors from the Government Hospital, Mettupalayam, recently performed a complex pancreatic surgery on a 12-year-old girl from Annur.

The girl had been suffering from recurrent episodes of abdominal pain, vomiting and digestion related problems since her infancy.

She was diagnosed with a congenital condition called pancreatic divisum due to which her pancreas had developed as two different parts with separate draining ducts as against a single gland with a single major ductal system in normal case.

According to a release, the major duct was not well developed with obstruction at its orifice that caused poor drainage of pancreatic juices into the intestines.

The pancreatic head was slowly damaged and the duct got filled up with stones, a condition called chronic calculus pancreatitis. Doctors found that the girl needed to undergo Frey’s procedure, in which the deceased portion of the pancreatic head is cored out, and a drainage procedure called lateral pancreaticojejunostomy.

Special instruments

The government hospital’s Chief Medical Officer Kannan and chief paediatric surgeon from SGK Hospital Vijayagiri formed a team and special instruments and suture materials were brought from Coimbatore.

The procedure, which costs ₹ 3 to ₹ 4 lakh if done in a private hospital, was done free of cost under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

The release said it was the first time a taluk-level government hospital performed such a procedure in Tamil Nadu.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.