WHEN Jigar, a 14-month-old baby boy was operated for a complex liver tumor at the V S Hospital on June 26 this yesr, paediatric surgeons N Bhattacharya and Ashok Shah created a medical history of sorts.
This is apparently the first incident of successful liver resection surgery in the State.
A large tumer in the right lobe of the liver was removed successfully on that day in a four hour long operation. Two-thirds of the liver including the gall bladder and the tumor were removed and the child was left with only one-third of the liver tissues.
This type of surgery is very complicated and has high rate of morbidity and mortality. High mortality rates during surgery is due to uncontrolled bleeding from hepatic vein and inferior vena cava, the largest vein in human body, when the operation is being carried out. The post operative morbidity is mainly because of deranged liver function as the liver tissue takes its time to cope up with the extra burden forced on it.
Jigar had some liver function complication in the initial post operative period, but with efficient post operative management everything normalised in two week's time. Doctors say liver tumors in children are very rate.
Only 140 cases of infant liver tumor have been reported in 57 years.
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