A team of doctors at the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) on Tuesday successfully treated a 2.7-year-old girl suffering from hepatoblastoma, a rare and aggressive liver tumour that had also spread to her lungs.
With this feat, KIMS has become one of the few hospitals in India — and the first in Odisha — to perform the highly complex Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE) procedure on a child so young.
The extraordinary case required the coordinated efforts of 15 doctors across seven departments, making it one of the most challenging multidisciplinary procedures undertaken at the hospital. The child, now fully recovered, endured a medical journey marked by courage and resilience that would test even an adult, doctors said.
The patient was brought to KIMS after months of worsening abdominal pain, swelling and loss of appetite, despite several consultations at different hospitals. Detailed investigations revealed hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer mostly affecting children. Under the supervision of Dr Palash Das, paediatric hemato-oncologist, chemotherapy was initiated immediately. Although her condition improved, the tumour remained too large for surgery.
At this stage, Dr Swati Das, an interventional radiologist, recommended TACE, a procedure in which chemotherapy drugs are delivered directly into the blood vessels feeding the tumour, effectively cutting off its blood supply. The treatment proved effective — the tumour shrank significantly, making surgery feasible.
An extended liver resection (non-anatomical liver resection) was then performed by Dr Vedavyas Mohapatra (surgical gastroenterology) and Dr Varsha M. Totadri (paediatric surgery), under the guidance of Dr P.K. Jena, head of paediatric surgery, with critical support from the anaesthesia and paediatric ICU teams. Post-operative care was overseen by Dr Jiten Sahoo, paediatric gastroenterologist.
“This is the first time such a complex paediatric TACE procedure has been successfully carried out in Odisha,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that it places KIMS among a handful of institutions in India capable of performing such advanced interventions on young children.