SCB Doctors Perform Rare Surgery On 15-Month-Old Girl

Cuttack: Thanks to the efforts of doctors at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Smruti Rekha Pradhan has got a new lease of life. The 15-month-old girl from Chatabara village in Deogarh district was born with four fingers on her right hand.

Smruti Rekha’s thumb was grossly under developed and was actually non-functioning. It was a rare congenital hand anomaly, said doctors of plastic surgery department of SCB.

As it is very unusual condition for a child born without a thumb, the surgeons decided to perform the surgery after conducting several tests.

According to the surgeons, the index finger was shortened and transferred to the position of thumb through micro-surgical technique (Pollicisation) which is first of its kind surgery performed at the premier State-run hospital last week.

A team of doctors led by Bibhuti Nayak took up this complex surgery which lasted for around three hours.

“The new thumb is behaving well and started functioning one week after the surgery. This is the first pollicisation in the State. The department was not able to undertake such procedures due to lack of operating microscope,” said Nayak.

Nearly 50 per cent of our hand function depends on thumb and Smruti Rekha was earlier facing problems in grasping things. But she can now hold things and is ready to lead a normal life.

Nayak further informed that the operating microscope was made available to the department some four months back and now the doctor are ready to take up complex micro-surgical procedures.