Sri Vijaya Puram, Oct. 27: A 2.5-year-old girl was born with a condition where her food pipe was not formed properly at the time of birth. The team of surgeons from ANIIMS performed an emergency surgery in the baby immediately after she was born, wherein a feeding tube was placed in her abdomen through her stomach to ensure she is able to get nutrition. For almost two and half years, she was being fed through this artificial tube, which has helped her gain adequate weight, so that the real food pipe can be created surgically for the child.

On September 25, 2024, a highly specialized surgery was done to create food pipe for her. During the procedure, her artificial feeding tube was removed and the opening in her stomach was closed. Subsequently, a food pipe was created by making a tunnel in her chest to move the stomach up towards the neck. Her stomach was carefully separated from surrounding organs.

Using the blood supply from key arteries, the stomach was brought up between the heart, aorta, lungs, and other structures, and placed in the neck to act as a new food pipe. Finally, the stomach was connected to her small, underdeveloped esophagus.

The surgery was performed by a team of Super Specialist doctors of ANIIMS headed by Dr. Saji Vargheese, Surgical Specialist and Anesthetist, Dr. Narayanan. This was an extremely sophisticated and complex surgery lasting almost 7 hrs. The post-operative period for the child has been absolutely uneventful and the child is now doing well and is able to take food orally.

Such extremely complex and highly sophisticated surgeries are being performed in GBPH by the team of Super Specialist highly competent Surgeons and Anesthetist, with ease and perfection. These patients are also recovering well with a success rate better than most of the hospitals in mainland.