Malaysian Experiences on Paediatric Surgery.

    Malaysia have had many experiences that involve paediatric surgeries. However, amongst them, the one that catches our attention was the history made by UKM Medical Centre after the success of the ‘minimally invasive’ surgery on a 14 day-old baby to remove 95 per cent of his pancreas. 

keyhole

     Thus, the surgery (pancreatectomy) was done for the first time of its kind in the world for patients below 30 days old. The surgery was done to protect the newborn from brain damage. The patient was suffering from a rare case of Persistent Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia of Infancy (PHHI) where the pancreas produces excessive insulin. This can lead to brain damage because it induces hypoglycemia by reducing the glucose level in the blood. 

Dr Dayang

    The physician who performed the surgery was Dr Dayang Anita Abdul Aziz, Consultant Pediatric Surgeon & Head of UKM Paediatric Surgery Unit. She said, “the treatment is to remove nearly the entire pancreas. But extra care had to be taken because if we over do it, the child will become diabetic when old. The removal has to be just right. We call it near total pancreatectomy.” The surgery was done by using a laparoscopic camera inserted through the navel so that the pancreas can be viewed on a high definition (HD) screen without having to cut the infant's abdomen open. Then Dr Dayang inserted surgical instruments through a small incision which was less than 3mm in length at each side of the abdomen. With guided by the magnified images of the pancreas on the HD screen, she cut the pancreas into small pieces and taking it out one piece at a time. The whole process took nearly two and a half hours. 

    Keyhole surgery is quite common and is done in both public and private hospitals all over Malaysia. But what makes UKMMC different is the facilities and expertise to do keyhole surgery in infants and newborns which entailed more complex procedures. 

Keyhole surgery

Read more about the news by clicking the following link, UKM Made History with Keyhole Surgery on a 14 Day Old Baby