Rare surgery performed on five-year-old in city

HYDERABAD: Five-year-old Parvati Rohra weighed only 10 kg till recently. Every time she tipped over and fell down while walking, she would fracture a bone as she ran low on Vitamin D.

Parvati, who was suffering from Alagille syndrome, can lead a much better life now. "The syndrome effects vital organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, necessary for survival," said Dr Manish C Varma, head of Liver

Transplant Department at Apollo Hospitals during a press conference organised on Thursday in Hyderabad.

A team of 20 specialists were involved in the surgery. Pediatric cardiac surgeons Dr Girish Warrier, Dr Kavitha Chintala, Dr Meena Trehan are some of the team members.

Interestingly, as the combined surgery on a patient suffering from Alagille Syndrome and Child C Cirrhosis has never been attempted before in the world, the doctors



could not find any

literature on the surgery procedure making it an extremely challenging operation. Some of the specialists also said that colleagues from their fraternity discouraged them from performing the surgery as it was a complex situation.

When asked why no gap was given between the two surgeries, Dr Manish said that when a Liver transplant is performed, load on the heart increases and the organ needs to be in good condition.

"When open heart surgery is performed, all organs are bound to get injured to an extent. As Parvati was suffering from Cirrhosis, injury was more. Her liver started to deteriorate after we performed open heart surgery. The heart surgery ended at 9 pm on January 23. Next morning, liver transplantation was performed," Dr Manish said.

The girl's mother Prerna Rohra was the liver donor.