3-year-old’s rare liver disorder cured

Published: October 22, 2008 | 7259th good news item since 2003

Doctors from the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi have cured a three year old girl from a rare disease which prevented her from leading a normal life.

Fatima suffered from Crigler Najjar Syndrome (CNS), a rare and fatal liver disease.

Her only means of staying alive was phototherapy. Undressed she would be exposed to specific wavelengths of light for 10-16 hours a day, every day.

Dr Subhash Gupta (liver transplant expert) and Dr Anupam Sibal (paediatrician) transplanted a part of Fatima’s father’s liver. That has brought the bilirubin level to normal heights.

“Very high levels of bilirubin can cause permanent brain damage. The main therapy for patients with this disease is phototherapy. Greater the surface area of the body that is exposed to light and greater the intensity of light falling on the skin, higher is the efficacy of phototherapy.

Fatima was living in agony, spending 10 to 14 hours every day under phototherapy since birth. This was severely restricting her lifestyle. Even travelling and vacations were a great problem.

Since the defect was with the liver, we decided to transplant part of the healthy liver of Fatima’s father into her. She will not require any more phototherapy. She will only have to be on medicines all her life, the dosages of which will lessen as she ages.

Both Fatima and her father are doing well. Her eyes and skin are no more yellow in colour.”
– Dr Gupta

Cured, Fatima has returned to her family in the Middle East and can start a normal life.

Published in Science & Technology
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