Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar successfully performed a rare surgery by restoring the food pipe of a patient and enabled her to eat normally

The department of Surgical Gastroenterology at Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar has added one more feather to its cap by performing an extremely rare surgery on a middle aged lady in restoring her food pipe which had sustained injury following accidental swallowing of her denture.

A middle aged lady who had sustained injury to her esophagus following accidental swallowing of denture had undergone treatment in another hospital with an attempt to remove the denture. However, during the treatment process in that hospital she suffered severe damage to her food pipe.

As an interim measure, her food pipe was diverted out of the neck (Esophagostomy). She was being fed through a tube placed in her intestine (feeding jejunostomy). This procedure was done in the previous hospital. To add to her problem, she developed blood clot in the leg veins (deep vein thrombosis) which posed immediate risk to her life. She was referred to Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar in a very critical state. Patient was admitted immediately in the ICU with serious respiratory problems in addition to the existing ones.

As the patient was having multiple issues, hence a comprehensive treatment was planned and at the initial level she was treated by Dr Manas Kar, Senior Consultant Interventional Radiology, Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar who placed a filter in her IVC to prevent the clot in the leg veins to migrate up. This, in itself was a complex yet key procedure to save her life initially. She continued to remain in ICU for some time and recovered gradually.

Having tided the patient over the initial crisis, the next challenge was to restore her food pipe so that she was able to eat normally. Elaborating in detail about the case Dr Md. Ibrarullah, Senior Consultant, Department Surgical Gastroenterology, said that reconstruction of food pipe is a complex and lengthy procedure and on first week of the December 2018, she underwent the surgery in which reconstruction of her food pipe was done by using a segment of large intestine.

Esophago-coloplasty procedure was conducted by Dr Ibrarullah & his team comprising of Dr. MS Modi, Dr Salil Parida, Dr Sadananda Meher, Dr H Wani and Dr Srinivasulu. The Anesthesia team, headed by Dr Mami Parija and Dr Saumitra Satpathy provided efficient support in managing such a long & complex procedure.

The patient had an absolutely smooth post-operative recovery and was discharged. She was able to eat normally. The happiness on her face after being able to taste normal food like a normal person really needs to be seen to be believed.

Congratulating Dr Ibrarullah and his team, Mr. Sudhir M Diggikar, Regional CEO of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd Odisha and Chhattisgarh said that Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar has always been in the forefront in providing all requisite treatment facilities to the needy. “Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar is well equipped with all state-of-art facilities and has experienced doctors and paramedics to respond to any kind of emergency.”, he added.