At the Clinical Centre for Paediatric Medicine of the Western Ukrainian Specialised Centre, doctors have successfully operated on a prematurely born baby boy named Nathan, who was diagnosed with a complex congenital defect — a left-sided diaphragmatic hernia.
The baby was born at 33 weeks of pregnancy. Because of a malformation of the abdominal organs, the stomach, intestines and spleen had shifted into the chest cavity, which significantly impaired lung function and led to displacement of the heart.
Doctors emphasise that such patients require particularly careful preparation for surgery in order to choose the safest moment for the operation.
“Such children require very thorough stabilisation before surgery. It is important to wait for the moment when respiratory parameters allow us to intervene safely,” — Oleh Leniv
Once his condition had been stabilised, the infant underwent a minimally invasive thoracoscopic operation through three small punctures. The most challenging task for the surgeons was that Nathan’s left lung was severely underdeveloped.
After the procedure, the boy spent almost three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit under round-the-clock supervision by a multidisciplinary team of doctors. Thanks to the well-coordinated work of paediatric surgeons, anaesthetists and neonatologists, his condition was stabilised.
Nathan is now under the care of paediatricians. According to the doctors, he has every chance of growing up and developing like any other child. The successful treatment was reported by the Centre for Paediatric Medicine of the Okhmatdyt hospital.