Telangana: NIMS Surgeons reconstruct food pipes in two children

Hyderabad: Marking a rare occasion, the surgeons working at the department of surgical gastroenterology, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) had successfully reconstructed the food pipes on a 3-year-old girl and an 18-month-old boy. 

The children were suffering from a rare illness called Esophageal Atresia in which the food pipes are not present making it impossible to swallow food. The food pipe or esophagus is the pipe that leads from the mouth to the stomach. 

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The medical condition is a birth defect that occurs in two children out of 10,000 births, said the doctors. The complex surgeries were conducted by a team of surgeons, led by the Head, of surgical gastroenterology, Dr N Bheerappa. 

The children have been surviving with the help of a food pipe. The doctors were able to restore the unformed food pipe with colonic interposition surgery and the money for the surgery was taken from the Chief Minister Relief Fund, reports the New Indian Express. The three-year-old girl is from LB Nagar whose parents work as labourers. She did not have a left kidney and the ESI hospital had placed a feeding tube into her stomach, offering a temporary solution. She was discharged from the hospital eight days after the surgery. 

The second kid, an 18-month-old baby from Visakhapatnam, was born without a food pipe. The surgeons had performed the colonic interposition on July 5, ten days after which he was discharged, reports the Telangana Today. 

Dr N Bheerappa, Prof. and HoD, Surgical Gastroenterology in NIMS said, "A part of the intestine was brought from the abdomen to the neck via chest as a substitute. The surgery demands huge technical expertise and acumen leaving a margin of error to almost nil." He further added that such complex surgeries have not been reported so far in India, adding that very few centres in the world have performed and reported the colonic interposition for esophageal atresia. 

Dr Bheerappa stated, "We could offer this prototype solution due to the vast experience gained from performing more than 600 colonic interposition surgeries for adults."

Esophageal Atresia is a rare illness found in 2 out of 1000 babies and in most cases, there is an abnormal connection between the food pipe and the windpipe which leads to additional breathing problems. Such patients might have one or multiple constellations of other organ defects usually denoted by the acronym VACTREL (Vertebral defects, Anal atresia, Cardiac defects, Tracheo-esophageal fistula, Renal anomalies, and Limb deformities). 

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