Kolkata: While congenital heart diseases are much discussed, lung diseases are rarely talked about. Recently, doctors at Narayana Superspecialty Hospital (NSH) Howrah operated on a 20-day-old baby with severe respiratory distress in its emergency department.
The newborn was diagnosed with a rare lung condition called Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation (CCAM), type 1, where a part of the lung is converted into multiple cysts. Doctors removed the affected portion of the lungs, and the baby is now on the path to recovery.
For the Chaudhurys of Shyamnagar, it was a harrowing time when their second child started suffering from breathing distress after birth. When the problem became acute, they rushed their daughter to a nursing home in Barrackpore, where her condition deteriorated despite treatment for eight days.
That is when the neonate was referred to NSH Howrah.
At the Howrah hospital, an X-ray revealed a completely collapsed left lung, and the CT scan indicated CCAM, a very rare birth defect where cysts were causing damage to the left lung, oxygen deficiency, and compressing the right lung. This was a life-threatening condition and doctors said diagnosing this is challenging due to its rarity. The mortality rate in newborns with this condition can be as high as 30%.
At the Howrah facility, the baby was put on mechanical ventilation and resuscitated in preparation for surgery.
"The rarity of the disease often leads to a delay in diagnosis. But once we detected it, we knew what to do. We conducted a surgical procedure where 20% of the diseased lung was removed," said paediatric and newborn surgeon Goutam Chakraborty. Doctors Sudipta Ghosh and Shirsendu Nandy administered the anaesthesia. The team also included paediatric intensivist Shubhadeep Das for critical-care management.
While the baby was discharged a week later with progressive improvement, doctors are still following up on her condition.