A minimally invasive surgical procedure carried out by Apollo Hospital in Tiruchi recently has helped save a 42-year-old male patient who was suffering from acute pancreatitis, a medical condition that can lead to life-threatening complications if left untreated.
At a press conference on Saturday, details of the procedure, called percutaneous endoscopic necrosectomy (PEN), were explained by the medical team led by SNK Chenduran, interventional gastroentrologist and endoscopist at Apollo Hospital.
“The pancreas is an important gland that regulates our digestion and ability to process glucose. The patient, an academic in an agricultural college, came to us with abdominal pain, anorexia and sepsis that indicated pancreatitis which could be affecting other organs as well,” said Dr. Chenduran.
Despite medical management, the patient's condition continued to deteriorate, and intervention became necessary, even though he was still in the early phase of pancreatitis, said the team.
In acute necrotising pancreatitis, a part of the gland dies due to inflammation or injury. “If these dead tissues get infected, the patient’s life is endangered. There is a high risk of mortality in this disease,” Dr. Chenduran said.
Instead of traditional surgery, which would have involved opening the abdomen and resecting the necrotic tissue, the Apollo team decided to use PEN on the patient.
Radiologist Dr. Elam Vazhuthi guided the team to make a sinus tract that enabled Dr. Chenduran to carry out the PEN procedure using flexible endoscopy.
Terming PEN a viable alternative to traditional surgery, with costs ranging from ₹25,000 per sitting, the team said that the patient could take up to a year to recover completely.
