Bengaluru: Five days ago, Salma (45) was admitted at the District hospital in Tumakuru after she complained of intense pain and swelling in the anterior abdominal wall.
She has been a diabetic for the past 10 years, but as she was also suffering from hypertension, her blood sugar levels were not under control. “Because her sugar level was not under control, she could not be operated upon,” said Dr Veerabhadraiah, district surgeon, district hospital Tumakuru.
She walked in with intense pain and for treatment of umbilical hernia. But after a routine ultrasound we found that she had many gallstones. However, they were surprised to note that the gallstones numbered almost hundred. "It is the first time that we have seen such a case of huge number of gallstones at our hospital. In addition her case was complicated because of diabetes and somewhat overweight," said Dr Veerabhadraiah.
After diagnosing her with hernia and gallstones, the doctors decided to go ahead with the surgery. "We had to perform the traditional surgery as she had two conditions which needed treatment and laparoscopy were not possible. Both surgeries were done together. The patient was operated under anaesthesia and the surgery lasted two hours," he explained. After a few hours, the doctors successfully drew out 99 gallstones of different sizes. "It varied from 0.5 cm to 2 cm," he added.
The surgeons involved were Dr Vasim Imran and Dr Dinesh, along with a team of anesthesiologists led by Dr Chandrashekhar S. - Dr Suresh Babu and Dr Bijay.
"She will be in ICU under observation for another five days, but she is doing fine. The stones and the gallbladder have been sent for examination," Dr Veerabhadraiah summed up.
