Bengaluru: Infant gets relief from Laryngomalacia at Rainbow

Bengaluru: It is common for kids to gain weight with age. However, this three-and-a-half-month-old baby boy gained just 500 grams weight since his birth. He weighed 3 kg at birth and now he weighs 3.5 kg. Worse, he would have a complete collapse of airway every time he had taken breath

As a result, he has severe difficulty in breathing and feeding. There was hardly any weight gain and he was abnormally underweight.

Speaking about the rare case, Dr Leena Balachander-consultant Paediatric ENT at Rainbow Children's Hospital, Marathalli said, "While evaluating the reason for the baby's current scenario, we found out that the baby had Laryngomalacia. Laryngomalacia is a condition which causes softening of cartilages in the throat which leads to partial collapse of the airway each and every time the child breathes."

Although most of the newborn babies will have a milder form of Laryngomalacia which improves when the baby grows. However, in this case, this particular baby had a severe form which almost led to the complete collapse of the airway every time the child took a breath. It was an ongoing struggle for the child to breath every time.

To save the life of the kid, a corrective surgery-supraglottoplasty, a microscopic surgical procedure to alter malformed structures of the upper larynx was performed. This allows a child with severe laryngomalacia to breathe easily.

The infant is out of danger but the doctors say that had he not been treated it would have had severe growth retardation and in several cases could land up in life threatening complications.