Colectomy operations for newborns

Author: Dr. Faezah Haider Ali
About Author: Consultant of Pediatric Surgery
Category: Surgery

SMC performs complicated surgeries for newborn babies with natal  congenital diseases, after being diagnosed with these disease. Such cases need to be diagnosed at an early stage in order for the operation to succeed, and the babe gets released from hospital afterwards in good health. The number of these case in Salmaneya are estimated  with 5-7 cases per year.

The age of infants who are born with this disease does not exceed one month and the operation takes around 1-3 hours according to the infant’s health condition. This disease is a developmental disorder characterized by absence of ganglia in the colon which leads to its blockage and failure to pass stool and it is  named after the first doctor to  describe two cases of this disease in the seventeenth century. One newborn of 5000 infant is born with this congenital disorder and it is diagnosed by taking a colon sample from the anus to make sure that it is free on nerve cells.

This congenital disorder is treated by removing the affected colon. These operations were performed before at 3 stages, but it is different now as it is done at one time without wounding the abdomen. The surgery is done through the Anus and it should be performed during the first few weeks of birth. it is worth mentioning that the percentage of these operation’s success exceeds 90%, and the disease cannot be detected without the assistance of radiologists, physiologists and Anesthesiologists. It is diagnosed initially by doing bone scintigraphy and the sample is examined afterwards by physiologists as a final step of diagnosis and this kind of surgeries have become safer nowadays with the presence of advanced anesthesia drugs and devices.