Record Small Intestine Transplantation on 4 Year Old

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A small intestine transplant surgery performed on a four-year-old boy has given him a new lease of life. The complex surgery on the child has also been acknowledged as a record by The Asia Book of Records.

Four-year-old S Guhan, an LKG student from Bangalore suffered total damage of his low intestine after his intestine loop twisted and blood supply was cut off to the intestinal loop due to a rare condition called Volvulus. Doctors detected it after he developed erratic vomiting.

Whatever he ate wasn’t digested and came out of the stoma. While small intestine transplant was the only solution, the child was put on intravenous feeding. “That time we didn’t have hope. Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) have its own issues and we can’t be on it lifelong” said Mr.Swaminathan Balakrishnan, Guhan’s father, an IT professional.

Doctors at the Rela Hospital in Chennai found a good match in Guhan’s father Mr Swaminathan Balakrishnan and decided to go in for a living donor transplantation.

Doctors say it was a seven hour complex surgery to transplant 150 cm of the small intestine from the father to the son and that both Master Guhan and his donor father are doing well now. Master Guhan is able to eat normally after months of Intravenous nutrition and his father too, they add has resumed regular work. The procedure cost them around thirty lakh rupees.

Dr Mohamed Rela, Chairman and Managing Director of Rela Hospital told tellmystory.in “The challenge for small bowel transplant for small children is fitting in and not having the space inside the abdomen to fit in a part of an adult’s small intestine. But fortunately in this child they had removed and there was enough space for us to do a small bowel transplant.”

The procedure also earned the hospital a place in the Asia Book of Records. An emotional Mr Balakrishnan said “Doctors have given a second life to our son. Guhan eats idly and dosa normally.”

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