In 90 days, the Department of Paediatric Surgery of the Institute of Child Health (ICH) and Hospital for Children, Egmore, has performed 383 emergency surgeries in the midst of the lockdown and surge in COVID-19 cases in the City. Surgeons established their own COVID-19 sampling facility to expedite testing of children in need of surgeries.

The lockdown might have hit medical services in many ways but doctors of the Department of Paediatric Surgery, along with a team of anaesthetists of ICH, kept emergency surgeries going.

“As of June 24, we have performed 383 emergency surgeries and all of them were major cases. This should probably be the most by any department in the State over the past three months. The surgeries included esophageal atresia with tracheo esophageal fistula, diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal obstructions, absent anus, VP shunts for hydrocephalus, bladder diversions for urinary obstructions and tumour removal,” R. Velmurugan, professor and head, Department of Paediatric Surgery, ICH, said.

In normal times, the department performed 150 to 180 emergency surgeries a month. “There was a slight dip as patients found it difficult to reach us from other districts, and secondly, up to 40% of our patients come from Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

It was a challenge to facilitate supplies and rotate staff quarantine. Maintaining manpower was the main challenge, he said. “At least one-third could not come due to various reasons such as lack of access to public transport, residing in containment zones and quarantine.”

The surgeons went on to set up their own sampling facility. They procured batches of viral transport medium from Madras Medical College, took turns to lift samples from children by wearing Personal Protective Equipment and transported it back for testing in order to avoid straining of resources, he said, adding: “The facility has been functioning since May 15, and we have so far lifted nearly 170 samples. Of this, around 26 children tested positive for COVID-19.”

Except in two cases, they knew the COVID-19 status for all children and went ahead with the surgeries. COVID-19 did not affect the outcome of surgeries in children, he said.

Some of the other surgeries included perforated appendicitis, cystoscopy and stenting for urinary stones, gastric obstruction, intussusception, bladder stone removal and chemoport insertions for cancer, he added.