9-year-old Artem was sent by ambulance to the St. Nicholas First Children’s Hospital of the Lviv Medical Association. The boy was in critical condition – he could hardly breathe. The cause was a pathological narrowing of the trachea.
“Our specialists immediately conducted an initial examination and discovered a narrowing of the trachea in the child. The opening in the respiratory tract was less than 2 mm — the norm is 1-1.4 cm. At any moment, the boy could suffocate.
Artemchyk could only be saved by an extremely difficult operation. But, before carrying out the intervention, it was necessary to examine the respiratory tract directly. And it became a challenge. Because it is impossible to introduce an extra object, due to the risk of swelling in the narrowing area of the trachea, which would inevitably lead to a fatal outcome. Therefore, our specialists decided to carry out a unique diagnostic procedure without surgical intervention — they made a CT scan with a special device with a 3D image,” explained the First Medical Association of Lviv.
During the operation, pediatric surgeons Oleksandr Kalinchuk and Yulia Savka and thoracic surgeon Yuri Korol removed the pathological narrowing and sutured both ends of the trachea. Until recently, such operations were performed only in the capital. The anesthesiologists, who during the intervention intubated the boy’s trachea – that is, provided continuous ventilation of the lungs – performed extremely difficult and important work.
After the operation, the child recovered quite quickly. Already on the 15th day Artem returned home, and now he breathes freely.