Rohit Kumar
Sri Vijaya Puram, 27 October 2024
In a remarkable feat of medical expertise, a team of super-specialist surgeons from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Institute of Medical Sciences (ANIIMS) has successfully performed a highly specialized surgery on a 2.5-year-old girl, giving her the ability to consume food orally for the first time.
The young girl was born with a rare congenital condition in which her esophagus, or food pipe, was not fully formed, preventing her from eating naturally since birth. Following an emergency intervention by ANIIMS surgeons immediately after her birth, a feeding tube was placed directly into her abdomen, allowing her to receive the nutrition she needed to grow and prepare her body for a future corrective surgery. For over two years, she relied on this feeding tube, which helped her gain enough weight for a permanent solution.
On September 25, 2024, ANIIMS specialists, led by Surgical Specialist Dr. Saji Varghese and Anaesthetist Dr. Narayanan, embarked on a complex seven-hour surgery to create a functional food pipe. The procedure involved an intricate process of relocating her stomach to the neck, effectively transforming it into an esophagus. The surgical team carefully crafted a pathway through her chest, moving her stomach between vital organs, including the heart, aorta, and lungs, without disrupting their functions. Utilizing the blood supply from key arteries, they positioned the stomach to serve as a new food pipe and connected it to her small, underdeveloped esophagus.
The surgery was completed successfully, and her artificial feeding tube was removed. Remarkably, the child’s post-operative period has been uneventful, and she is now able to eat food orally, marking a significant improvement in her quality of life.
This highly complex procedure showcases ANIIMS’s advanced medical capabilities, with the team of super-specialist surgeons at G.B. Pant Hospital (GBPH) performing such surgeries with precision and skill. ANIIMS has set a high benchmark for surgical success, matching and even surpassing the standards of some of the best hospitals on the mainland.