Boy with rare medical condition gets new lease of life

City doctors have successfully performed a reconstructive procedure on a 12-year-old boy from Murshidabad, who was suffering from a complicated kidney problem.

Speaking to mediapersons here at a press conference, Mohan Keshavamurthy, consultant urologist and transplant surgeon at Fortis Hospitals, said, “The boy has recovered and once he is recuperates, he can start living a normal life and take part in physical activities including playing a sports,”

Tanish Guin, who lives in Murshidabad, located around 230 kms from Kolkata, was diagnosed with a congenital condition that was damaging his kidneys, his father said.
“Our family doctor found a lump in the lower part of his left abdomen and said that the only solution to the problem was nephrectomy- removal of one of the kidneys. Ultrasound tests revealed that both the right and left kidney were not well-functioning. We rushed Tanish to a private hospital in Kolkata and were shocked when the doctor said that his kidney needs to be removed,” the boy’s father added. 

The child was later brought to Bengaluru where a team of doctors diagnosed him with Bilateral PUJ (Pelviureteric junction), a condition that affects urine flow and is caused when the area between the ureter (the tube that drains urine from the kidney to the bladder) and the renal pelvis in the kidney, becomes narrow. Urine can build up in the area and damage the kidney due to this condition.

“We conducted various tests to find out if the problem is related to the obstruction of the urine flow in the ureter or bladder. About 1 in 50 children suffer from this medical condition,” said Dr Mohan Keshavamurthy.

Guin’s  left kidney was severely damaged and his renal function had dropped to just three per cent. The right kidney was also compromised but not as much as the left.
The doctors performed a minimally invasive reconstructive procedure known as Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty on the left side and put a stent at the site to drain urine from the kidney.

“In August, the left stent was removed and a Laparoscopic Right Pyeloplasty was performed. The boy has now recovered,” Dr Keshavamurthy added.