Hyderabad doctors treat girl with rare genetic disorder

Doctors at Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad recently conducted a complex pediatric liver transplant and an open heart surgery on a five-year-old girl with multiple health problems.

The patient, identified as baby Parvati Rohra, suffers from a rare genetic disorder called Alagille Syndrome. “It occurs with a frequency of 1:1,00,000 children and can impact the liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, bones among others,” doctors said.

She has been battling advanced liver cirrhosis, congenital heart defects, severe growth retardation and rickets.

On January 23, the doctors performed an open heart surgery for the cardiac defects and then with a live donor, liver transplant was performed by using a part of her mother’s liver. The procedures were performed within a few hours of each other.

“The task was daunting for the team, especially since there is no precedence of treatment for such a complex case being attempted in medical history,” Dr Dr Manish C Varma, Head of the Liver Transplant Department said.
However, the most important thing was to identify the correct window of opportunity to do the liver transplant. 

Compounding the problem was her weight of just about 10 kilograms. 

Thorough investigations lead doctors to conclude that an open heart surgery would be able to achieve a cardiac function that would enable us to do the liver transplant, he explained.

The baby has since recovered and was discharged on February 7.