A 13-Year-Old Delhi Boy Regains His Voice After A Difficult Surgery
Update: 2022-06-05 11:00 IST
The 4 cm of windpipe near the voice box was completely destroyed, doctors said. (Representational)
A 13-year-old child who had been breathing through a tracheostomy tube for nearly ten years underwent a complex but successful surgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. Shrikant got a head injury as a toddler and had to be maintained on a ventilator for a long time.
His windpipe has shortened as a result of the long-term ventilation. After that, he had a tracheostomy, in which physicians placed a tube into his windpipe through a hole in his neck.
There was no airway for him to breathe normally due to a long duration of tracheostomy and a missing section of the windpipe. According to specialists at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), the youngster had not spoken or eaten normally for the previous seven years.
Dr Manish Munjal, Senior Consultant, ENT Department explained that when he first met the patient, he suspected that it would be a difficult airway and voice box surgery. In his 15 years of practise, he had never seen anything like that. The cricoid and tracheal complexes of the kid were completely stenosed.
According to Dr Munjal, because 4 cm of the windpipe at the voice box had been entirely destroyed and was not recoverable, our first goal was to repair the gap between the upper and lower airway segments. The 'Laryngeal Drop' surgery was used to lower the voice box from its normal position.
To execute this unusual and demanding treatment, the hospital assembled a team of experts from the departments of Thoracic Surgery, ENT, Paediatric Intensive Care, and Anaesthesia.
As per Dr. Sabyasachi Bal, Chairperson of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, they made the decision to perform a complete 'Crico-tracheal resection' of the diseased airway segment. This is a demanding and difficult surgery with a significant risk of failure, which can sometimes result in death. However, the child had no other choice, and the family was informed of this. The boy was wheeled into the operating room on April 23. For six and a half hours, the doctors collaborated.
Dr Bal explained that the same time, the lower half of the windpipe was detached from its chest attachment and dragged towards the voice box.
The operation on the severely stenosed cricoid bone was the most critical and challenging portion. It is a horseshoe-shaped bone that is located below the voice box and is responsible for voice and airway protection. It is a horseshoe-shaped bone with minute nerves on both sides.
The surgery went well, but there were still obstacles to overcome. The experts stressed the importance of proper post-surgery care.