GUWAHATI, Dec 8 - Surgeons of Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Guwahati, have conducted a successful surgery on a teenage girl suffering from a very rare disease called �Oriental Cholangiohepatitis�.
Simashree Lahkar, an 18-year-old girl from Changsari, Kamrup, was referred to the Gastro-Intestinal Surgery department of the hospital with a repeated history of abdominal pain and jaundice. Her condition was evaluated and she was found to have the disease.
This disease is mostly seen in Southeast Asia with a very low incidence in India, even more rarer in the northeastern states. This disease is characterised by the presence of multiple stones in the biliary tract and liver, with strictures of biliary ducts.
She underwent a major abdominal surgery where her diseased bile duct was removed with the removal of all stones in the extra- and intrahepatic bile ducts and biliary reconstruction. The surgery was performed by consultant surgical gastroenterologist Dr Digvijoy Sharma and consultant urologist Dr Syed Wasim.
The surgeons adopted an innovative technique, using a nephroscope used to remove kidney stones, to enter into the liver ducts to remove the stones under vision. Dr Imdad Hussain and Dr Swapnil Verma were the expert anaesthetists during the surgery.
The patient had an uneventful perioperative period and was discharged on the fifth postoperative day in good health.
Dr Digvijoy Sharma later commented that these are challenging cases due to their rarity and the difficulty in removing the stones from inside the liver. The reconstruction of the biliary tract is also challenging, he added.
The Surgical Gastroenterology department routinely performs complex gastrointestinal cases along with major GI cancer surgeries, he said. The department recently launched a free GI oncology clinic at this hospital to operate on Thursdays for the benefit of cancer patients.
