Dubai: A 49-year-old Asian male patient with no history of abdominal surgery was presented at Aster Hospital in Al Qusais, Dubai, with severe abdominal pain, vomiting and a swollen abdomen. He was diagnosed with a rare case of a small intestine bowel obstruction, which, if left untreated, would have caused serious complications. The medical team took an unconventional approach to treat the patient, which reduced his recovery time from three months to less than a week.
In medical terms, he was diagnosed with an obstruction of the bowel due to the Mesodiverticular band in Meckel’s diverticulum — a condition where there is a blockage in the small intestine, causing immense abdominal pain to the patient. If not treated promptly, it can lead to several long-term life-threatening complications.
Traditionally, an intestinal obstruction is treated by cutting open the abdomen (known as laparotomy), which can usually take months to recover from, in addition to various complications that may arise post-surgery. However, in this case, the procedure was done through a minor incision (laparoscopically) and the obstruction was removed by cutting out the band causing the obstruction and removing the bulge or outpouching known as Meckel’s diverticulum.
Talking about the case, Dr Reji Chandran, specialist general surgeon at Aster Hospital, Al Qusais, said: “Meckel’s diverticulum is a bulge in the lower part of the small intestine caused due to a leftover of the umbilical cord during birth and it occurs in about 1-3 per cent of the population, but causes symptoms in only a small number of people. Many people may not even show any symptoms through their entire life.
Post-surgery, the patient recovered without any complications and was discharged after just three days of hospitalisation.
