Chennai, Sep 12 (IANS) A team of doctors in Chennai gave a new lease of life to a premature baby by performing a surgery for a rare disease called amniotic hernia, in which the appendix is located in the area between the abdomen and the thigh (groin).
“This is the fourth case of its kind in the medical history of the world,” SRM Global Hospitals said in a statement on Thursday.
A baby was born to daily wage labourers Murthy and Manju at 28 weeks, after which his illness was revealed. The baby underwent surgery under general anesthesia on the 23rd day of birth.
“The newborn was in the neonatal ICU since birth. On the 23rd day, the baby developed swelling in the right inguinal-scrotal region. We had to perform emergency surgery as the condition was life-threatening,” said Dr Saravana Balaji of the hospital.
Although neonatal hernia is relatively common in premature babies, umbilical hernia is exceptionally rare, affecting only 0.42 percent of infants, Balaji said.
He further added, “Even rarer is a perforation of the appendix, which occurs in only 0.1 percent of amniotic hernia cases. To date, only three such cases have been reported worldwide. We needed to perform surgery quickly for this complex and rare condition.”
The doctor said that this was an extremely challenging surgery as the baby was born prematurely and his throat was not fully developed, making it difficult to administer anesthesia and care for him.
Additionally, due to the baby’s low weight, special postoperative care was required in the NICU to ensure proper recovery and support.
The baby has recovered well after the complex surgery that lasted for an hour. His weight increased to 2.06 kg and he was discharged in good normal condition.
–IANS
MKS/GKT
