Unusually large polyp removed from child in Dubai
Six-centimetre growth was the largest ever seen in a child, says Dubai-based doctor
- Image Credit: Oliver Clarke/ Gulf News
- Camille and her mother Chunhui Yu Bangerter. Camille recently underwent colonoscopy to remove a tumour.
Dubai: “We couldn’t believe it,” said the mother of a toddler after a Dubai-based doctor successfully removed a very large polyp from her child’s insides without invasive surgery.
“We had given up hope,” said Chunhui Yu Bangerter, who had consulted more than six doctors after her daughter started passing blood in her stools. Every one of them suggested that the child be operated on to remove the growth.
The child, Camille, 2 1/2 years old, was diagnosed with a colonic polyp, a growth in the large intestine.
“I looked at the video of the colonoscopy and decided that it can be removed using the colonoscope,” Dr Tareq Saleh, consultant gastroenterologist, told Gulf News.
“I was thinking that the growth is about 3cms,” he said. But when he worked with the colonoscope inside the child, he found the growth was much larger, 6cms in diameter. “I have never seen such a large polyp before,” he said.
A colonoscope is a long, flexible tube with a fibreoptic camera at the end and inserted inside through the colon. It makes it easier for a doctor to visualise the whole 3 to 5 foot long intestine. A snare is also attached to the end to remove growths. “You can attach small instruments to snare, cut, coagulate,” said Dr Saleh.
The 6-cm polyp was big even for the colonoscope snare used for adults, he said. The doctor then had to painstakingly cut the polyp into three pieces and snare and pull each piece out. “It took an hour,” he said. Usually such a procedure takes 10 minutes for smaller growths.
The child was able to go home the same day. “She’s back to a normal life,” he said. A regular surgery would have meant that the child would have to spend a week at the hospital for recovery.
The mother said she was overjoyed when the doctor came out and said, “She’s fine. We are done. We were planning to go home to our country,” she said, when doctors suggested an operation.
The doctor said this growth, known as juvenile polyp, occurs in children between the ages of two and seven. “It is usually not cancerous, but has to be removed to stop bleeding. We do not know why it occurs. But the good thing is that once it is removed it will not grow again.”
“We had given up hope,” said Chunhui Yu Bangerter, who had consulted more than six doctors after her daughter started passing blood in her stools. Every one of them suggested that the child be operated on to remove the growth.
The child, Camille, 2 1/2 years old, was diagnosed with a colonic polyp, a growth in the large intestine.
“I looked at the video of the colonoscopy and decided that it can be removed using the colonoscope,” Dr Tareq Saleh, consultant gastroenterologist, told Gulf News.
A colonoscope is a long, flexible tube with a fibreoptic camera at the end and inserted inside through the colon. It makes it easier for a doctor to visualise the whole 3 to 5 foot long intestine. A snare is also attached to the end to remove growths. “You can attach small instruments to snare, cut, coagulate,” said Dr Saleh.
The 6-cm polyp was big even for the colonoscope snare used for adults, he said. The doctor then had to painstakingly cut the polyp into three pieces and snare and pull each piece out. “It took an hour,” he said. Usually such a procedure takes 10 minutes for smaller growths.
The child was able to go home the same day. “She’s back to a normal life,” he said. A regular surgery would have meant that the child would have to spend a week at the hospital for recovery.
The mother said she was overjoyed when the doctor came out and said, “She’s fine. We are done. We were planning to go home to our country,” she said, when doctors suggested an operation.
The doctor said this growth, known as juvenile polyp, occurs in children between the ages of two and seven. “It is usually not cancerous, but has to be removed to stop bleeding. We do not know why it occurs. But the good thing is that once it is removed it will not grow again.”
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