Abu Dhabi
A baby girl born with her urinary bladder outside her body recently underwent a successful surgery in the capital to correct her condition.
The South Asian baby, who was born about two weeks ago, had a congenital anomaly known as open bladder, due to which her urinary bladder was open and positioned outside her body at birth.
The pelvic bones, which form a cage-like structure around the urinary bladder in humans, were also not connected to one another.
In addition, the umbilical cord was attached to her urinary bladder instead of her lower abdomen, explained Dr Ameen Al Gohary, consultant and head of paediatric surgery at Al Noor Hospital on Abu Dhabi’s Airport Road.
“Such an anomaly is extremely rare, and occurs in one of every 150,000 babies worldwide. It is also more common in boys,” Dr Al Gohary told Gulf News.
Se was called in immediately after the delivery.
“I had to assess her readiness for surgical intervention along with a team of medical professionals, and we began on the emergency procedure eight hours after she was born,” Dr Al Gohary said.
The surgery involved closing the baby’s bladder and placing it in the appropriate position within her body. The pelvic bones were also closed to protect the bladder. Finally, her belly button was repositioned to her lower abdomen.
“The operation took about three and a half hours. After this, the baby was placed in a special traction to prevent her pelvic bones from opening up again,” Dr Al Gohary said.
Doctors also checked up on her over the next two weeks to ensure that her bladder was collecting urine normally.
“After six months, we will assess if her bladder requires any further intervention to enable it to collect and pass urine normally,” Dr Al Gohary said.
“Other than this, she was found to be completely healthy, and was discharged from the hospital on Saturday,” he added.
Had the surgery not been performed quickly, the doctor said the girl’s bladder would have shrunk over time and been unable to function normally.
