The Pediatric Surgery team of the San Bortolo Hospital Vicenza he carried out a delicate surgery on a newborn babyremoving a mass that occupied almost half of her abdominal cavity. (on the cover: a photo of the operation)
Kept under constant observation
On Wednesday, 26 June 2024, a press conference was held at the San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza, where Dr. Savior Fabio ChiarenzaDirector of Pediatric Surgery, and Dr Patrizia SimionatoGeneral Director of ULSS 8 Berica, announced the success of a delicate surgical operation on a newborn baby girl, which took place in recent days.
A very delicate operation for the Pediatric Surgery department, which had to remove the newborn baby a voluminous mass that occupies almost 50% of the abdominal cavity and which had wrapped the colon and the appendix, also compressing the right ovary and the intestine.
“The diagnosis had already been made in the prenatal phase – explains Dr. Chiarenza – therefore the mother and the little girl had been followed with the utmost attention during the last stages of the pregnancy and we were already ready to intervene: after the birth, the baby was kept under observation for 5 days in Neonatal Intensive Care, but when we observed that in this period of time the mass had further increased in volume, starting to cause symptoms of occlusion, therefore with problems in the baby’s feeding, we intervened immediately”
The intervention
The surgical procedure to remove the mass took about two and a half hoursand it was conducted with the most advanced minimally invasive surgery techniquesmaking three micro-incisions of three millimeters in diameter on the little girl’s abdomen.
“Through the navel – continues Chiarenza – we inserted a microcamera, so we have isolated the mass from the intestineseparating it from the colon and appendix which were now incorporated, and we managed to preserve not only the intestine but also the ovary, to the benefit of the patient’s future fertility.”
“Thanks to the use of the minimally invasive method, the post-surgery recovery was very rapid, so much so that after two days the little girl was breastfed without difficulty and it was possible to discharge her.”
The fact that the operation was carried out laparoscopically represents a real novelty. In fact, throughout Italy there are very few centers that perform operations using certain advanced techniques. AND the Vicenza hospital is considered as a reference structure at national and European levelso much so as to attract young patients (and their parents) not only from other regions but also from abroad.
To demonstrate this, some numbers: every year There are approximately 1,400 interventions performed by the Pediatric Surgery Department of San Bortoloof which approx 500 with minimally invasive method.
A message of hope to families
The little girl was discharged two days after the operation, and can now live a peaceful life. A truly happy ending, which instills a message of hope. And this was precisely the objective of today’s press conference.
“We wanted to talk about this intervention for give parents a message of trust and hope“, comments the doctor Patrizia Simionato. “They need to know that at the hospital in Vicenza there are the most advanced skills to deal with even the most complex interventionsusing the most advanced methods, with respect to which the case studies collected over the years are of absolute importance”.
“I also want to underline that Pediatric Surgery represents a department of excellence also because it is located within a hospital where particular attention is dedicated to the care of newborns and children, with high level professionalism. Maternal – Child Department, this ensures that even the most delicate surgical cases are handled in the best possible waybecause the care takes place through a highly specialized multidisciplinary team and, as in this case, the process often begins already during pregnancy with prenatal diagnosis”.
“Thanks to these minimally invasive surgical techniques – concludes Dr. Clarity – we are able to offer even newborns greater surgical accuracy and at the same time an excellent post-operative recovery”
