DAMMAM, 19 May 2008 — Three-year-old Mohammad Haider, suffering from the rare “Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis (PFIC), was given a new lease of life by the doctors at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital Dammam with a quick diagnosis and a successful surgical intervention.
Haider was taken to hospital in a very debilitating condition and was immediately attended by gastroenterology department’s Dr. Nawal Robiaa, who diagnosed it as a case of PFIC, a genetically determined autosomal recessive disorder.
This disease is indeed very rare and is a chronic cholestasis syndrome, which begins in infancy and usually progresses to cirrhosis within the first 10 years of life. “The average age at onset is three months, though in some it can occur even later. These cases are generally found in consanguineous marriages (marriages between blood relatives),” said Dr. Aqeel Jumaan Al-Ghamdi, the director general of health affairs in the Eastern Province.
The child was admitted to the hospital and, after a biopsy, it was decided that the patient should be immediately subjected to surgical intervention. A team of pediatric surgeons, led by head of department of pediatric surgery Dr. Suzie Khogeer, Dr. Anwer Ahsan and Dr. Amnah Fallata, along with anesthetist Dr. Hala Hussain and intensivist Dr. Safa Al-Zayed performed the surgery.
“The historic surgery went on for eight hours where the surgeons did a partial bilary diversion. We opted against a liver transplant as the child’s liver condition was fairly good and there was no cirrhosis. This success follows the department’s skilled surgical procedures like PDA ligation, colonic replacement of the esophagus and various laparoscopic surgeries. It is the first successful surgery performed in the Kingdom,” Al-Ghamdi said.
An elated father was all praise for the ministry and the doctors. “Since the operation, my son is able to eat and sleep normally. There is no bleeding from the nose and no breathlessness, and what’s more important is the smile on his face.”
