It was a great relief from four years of pain for the 52-year-old woman. The woman from Versova, Mumbai, met with a road accident in 2017 while in the USA. She underwent multiple surgeries and had to be on the ventilator for two weeks.
Due to the severity of the accident, her abdomen could not be closed, and it took over six months to heal with regular dressings while she was in the ICU. For the years after the car accident, it was a task for her to live the routine life, she developed extreme trauma owing to multiple complexities.
According to the doctors, the woman started showing an increasing abdomen bulge, which worsened over four years, and the pain increased significantly. Following which she consulted multiple medical experts and was recommended a few Tera which revealed that she had a sizable incisional hernia with a wide defect of 21cms, which means that 21cm of her abdomen was without any muscles, and 60% of her intestines were outside the abdomen in the Hernia sac which is termed as loss of domain (LOD) in medical terms.
Dr Ramesh Punjani, consultant–general, laparoscopic & robotic surgeon, Fortis Hospital, Mulund, and an expert in abdominal wall reconstruction, conducted the surgery. He was assisted by Dr Hemant Patil, consultant–general surgery, Fortis Hospital and Dr Eham Arora.
“Our team has a considerable amount of experience in treating this type of hernia. Hence we decided to go ahead. At first, we injected Botox into her lateral muscles six weeks before the scheduled surgery. Botox creates temporary paralysis of muscles which can be stretched during surgery. Post that period, we did an abdominal wall reconstruction with bilateral transverse abdominis release. In this, we put a large piece of mesh (50 cm x 50 cm) to bring back the widely separated muscles and recreate the midline. We had anticipated a total of seven hours for the entire procedure, and that’s the duration it took us,” explained Dr Ramesh Punjani, the lead surgeon, Consultant–General, Laparoscopic & Robotic Surgeon.
“This type of operation needs a very competent and reliable team of surgeons, anaesthetists, ICU team, physiotherapists, etc. The woman expressed immense gratitude for the kind of hospitality and treatment Dr Ramesh Punjani and Fortis hospitals provided to her during the 9-day stay and recovery. The patient was successfully discharged on the fifth day after the surgery, with no side effects. Now, she is living every day, counting her blessings for getting a second chance at survival,” Dr Pujani concluded.
