Dallah Hospital Al-Nakheel in Riyadh managed to perform a successful and meticulous operation through laparoscopy that involved detaching a ureter from the bladder, removing ureteral stricture, repairing the ureter, then transplanting the ureter in the bladder in a six-year-old child.
Detailing the child's case, he suffered from severe inflammation, difficulty in urination, and fever with recurrent ache in the left side of the abdomen. After assessing the case, and doing the necessary lab tests and imaging, it turned out that the patient had a severe stricture in the lower part of the left ureter, which lead to highly serious dilation in the renal pelvis and ureter. This affected the kidney function negatively and lead to a loss of 20% of its function.
In this regard, Dr. Hamdan ibn Hammad Al-Hazemi, pediatric urology surgery consultant in Dallah Hospital Al-Nakheel, said, "After diagnosing and examining the child, a treatment plan was immediately made, which required to be implemented in two phases: the first was temporary drainage of the urine from the kidney to relief inflammation severity, lower pressure on the renal pelvis and ureter, and help improve kidney function. A temporary catheter was inserted in the kidney through the skin by Dr. Sameer Al-Saleh, interventional radiology consultant in Dallah Hospital. The second phase involved the main surgery."
Dr. Hamdan ibn Hammad Al-Hazemi noted that after inserting the temporary catheter, the sick child's condition improved noticeably. Moreover, at the same time, the recurrent inflammations stopped, and the pressure on the kidney stopped and its function improved as well, to increase from 20% to 34%. He added that they moved afterwards to the second phase, the main surgical intervention procedure using a laparoscope.
Dr. Al-Hazemi explained that the surgery was carried out using a laparoscope through 3 incisions, the first was a 5-mm incision through the navel, and the other two were 3-mm incisions in the abdomen, through the incisions, the surgical intervention was carried out, which consisted of detaching the ureter from the bladder and removing the stricture while repairing the ureter in the last part of the dilated ureter. After that, the ureter was re-transplanted into the bladder deep enough to prevent urinary reflux, or any stricture happening again after this surgery. Also, an internal catheter was inserted and would be removed after two months. At the same time, the temporary catheter has been removed from the kidney through the skin. He confirmed that the child's condition improved, and that he left the hospital two days after performing the surgery.
It is worth mentioning that Dallah Healthcare Company comprises of six pioneering health care facilities, serving more than 1.5 million patients annually, throughout the Kingdom, via more than 900 beds and 500 outpatient clinics. The group employs more than 3,000 employees, including around 1,000 specialists, in its effort to provide the highest standards of health care in the Kingdom.
