Gujarat: Rare cancer surgery lets 4-year-old eat normally again

RAJKOT: Each day for the past two years had been mentally agonizing for the parents of four-year-old Jenab Khan. The little girl was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw, an extremely rare medical condition in children.
She was unable to chew and lived mostly on fluids.
But a marathon surgery, touted to be the first of its kind among children, has ensured that Jenab eats like any other normal child.
The reconstructive or microvascular surgery was performed at Ahmedabad-based Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (GCRI) last week and Jenab is recovering well.
“Such surgeries are performed in adults. But our research and data shows that it is the first time in India that a reconstructive surgery using healthy tissues of the leg was performed on such a young child,”Dr Hemant Saraiya, plastic surgeon at GCRI who performed the complex operation, told TOI.
The cancerous tumour in the jaw was the size of lemon and the surgery lasted for nearly nine hours.
“She will be able to eat normally now and should be discharged in a few days,” he added.
GCRI officials said Jenab’s parents took her to several doctors and the majority of them suggested jaw removal as the only option.
Medical experts say that the microvascular surgery conducted to rejoin severed body parts such as fingers, hands, arms and other amputated parts. Surgeons do it by reconnecting the minute blood vessels which effectively restore circulation before the injured tissue begins to die.
Doctors transplanted healthy bone from her leg in the jaw after removing the cancerous parts to prevent spreading it in the body.
The Khans live in Junagadh's Bhavnath Taleti area and belong to the economically poor family.
"If the jaw part of the child is not removed, then chances of cancer spreading can increase. It was required to be removed to save his life and relieve her from pain,'' plastic surgeon Dr Hemant Saraiya said.
Doctors used titanium plates and screws in this reconstruction surgery. Now, she will undergo physiotherapy exercises in the coming days and teeth will be implanted.