A history of constipation in a one-and-a-half-year-old girl led to doctors at Sion Hospital diagnosing a rare condition (anterior meningomyelocele), which affects one in 50,000 children.
Akruti Swamy, a resident of Andheri, had tumour formations on the anterior side of the spinal canal, normally found on the posterior side.
“With great difficulty, she would pass stools once in two days. We found hard stool presence in the anal canal and swelling,” said Dr Paras Kothari, head of the paediatric surgery department, Sion Hospital.
An MRI and a CT scan revealed that Akruti sufferred from a rare condition where the cystic mass arising from anterior sacral and coccygeal defect lies in the retrorectal space between the rectum and sacrum.
“In her case, some pieces of the spine were missing and the tailbone was not formed. There was a huge mass between the anal canal and the missing tailbone that led to problems in passing stool,” said Dr Kothari.
“We operated her from the posterior side and removed a part of the spine bone and tumours attached to the spinal canal.”
The doctors removed 11 tumours in all. They later tied the dural sac — the membranous sac encasing the spinal cord within the bony structure of the vertebral column.
“We have kept an opening in the stomach for her to pass stool. This is to ensure there is no contamination. We also brought the anal canal to the original position. Once she recovers from the surgery, we will stitch the stomach,” said Dr Kothari.
