Hyderabad: A complex surgery performed at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) on Monday enabled a man to eat after three years.
The doctors operated on the man and corrected an abrupt link between his food and windpipes. The patient from the Jagtial district complained of difficulty in swallowing food when having it orally. He had reportedly undergone two surgeries for mouth cancer. The first operation was performed in 2019.
A subsequent examination revealed that he suffered from trachea-esophageal fistula i.e abnormal connection between the food and windpipe. The patient underwent tracheostomy, following the operation he was put on Ryle’s tube in order to feed him.
In 2020 he again suffered from cancer, when his tongue was infected. The ailment required his left jaw, half of the tongue, and mouth to be removed. Following the surgery, the patient was provided nasal tube feeding.
“We had to perform a surgery on him to disconnect an abnormal opening and reconstruct a food pipe. We had to explore his neck from an unconventional and rare right-sided approach as the left side of his neck was used during the previous jaw reconstruction.” head of the department of gastroenterology, NIMS Dr N Bheerappa said.
“The abnormal communication was identified and trachea repaired. As the esophageal tissues were unhealthy, due to the previous radiotherapy, the patient underwent colonic interposition.” he further said.
