An AIIMS first: Leftover veins save boy

“In Rahul’s case,the branch of aorta that supplies blood to the kidney had narrowed down,limiting blood supply,” Dr Shiv Choudhary,cardiothoracic surgeon at AIIMS who operated on the child,said. “We can use an arterial graft for older patients but in case of a child,the arterial graft could not be used as arteries are normally thicker.

“We needed something that could fit with his kidney’s blood vessel.”

As Rahul’s surgery was being planned,another patient was admitted for a heart bypass surgery,for which the doctors used the ‘great saphenous vein’ from the patient’s leg. “Luckily,” Dr Choudhary said,“we found that the body parameters of both patients matched perfectly. Also,the entire vein was not used during the bypass and we thought it could be used in Rahul’s case.

“It worked well.”

Blood supply to Rahul’s legs was also limited as the aorta did not have normal connection to arteries in the legs,Dr Choudhary said. Whatever blood was supplied to the lower limbs flowed from the veins directly connected to the arteries — investigations revealed the disease and the problem lay near the kidney.