A 20-day-old girl born with a rare skull malformation which prevented her from breathing, survived a long and complicated surgery at Al Noor hospital and is now on her way to recovery.
During a two-hour operation, a team of seven ENT surgeons and technicians removed the plate of bone obstructing the baby's nasal openings, a congenital anomaly which affects one newborn in every 10,000.
Dr Yousef El Hefni, ENT consultant at Al Noor Hospital, who performed the surgery, said it was conducted endoscopically, by using sophisticated equipment available exclusively at the hospital.
"This surgery is not common since the anomaly affects only one newborn in ten thousands and is very delicate due to the age of the patient," he said.
The Indian baby was born in Al Corniche Hospital three weeks ago and her condition appeared serious. She had breathing difficulties which prevented her from taking mother's milk.
She was immediately brought to the ICU and fed by a tube via the mouth which reached the stomach. However her conditions got worse when she started suffering from attacks of cyanosis and suffocation due to the lack of oxygen in her blood.
"The baby's skin was getting blue and she could have died at any moment. Hence we decided that the surgery was necessary at the earliest possible time," Dr El Hefni said.
After accurate investigations at Al Corniche hospital the baby was transferred in an incubator directly to the operating theatre at the hospital. Dr El Hefny was assisted by Dr Mahmoud Yousef, chief anaesthetist, and a team of technicians and nurse.
"The surgery was performed by using a telescope connected to a camera and a monitor, to magnify the picture inside the baby's nose," Dr El Hefny said. "We used another machine to drill and suck the plate of bone obstructing the posterior nasal openings".
Dr Mahmoud Yousef said that in the meantime the baby was kept under general anaesthesia and artificial ventilation through an additional tube linking her mouth to the trachea.
Soon after the surgery, two silicon tubes were installed through the new posterior openings of the baby's nose, which will be removed after three months. The baby could immediately breath on her own.
"After two days in ICU the baby is now at home with her parents. She can now breath and feed normally".
Dr Kasem Al Oam, director of Al Noor Hospital, said this is the first time that such a surgery has been conducted endoscopically at a private hospital in Abu Dhabi.
A similar surgery was done eight months back in Al Mafraq Hospital.
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