Oman health: Rare surgery performed on 6-year-old Omani girl in India

Muscat: A six-year old Omani girl has been given a new lease of life after a struggle with rare genetic disorders.
Lyaan, who suffered from Crouzon Syndrome, underwent surgery at Fortis Healthcare in India to be freed from deformities caused by this rare genetic disorder, which is seen in 1 in 60,000 live births.
Crouzon syndrome causes a severely deformed upper face among children suffering from it.
“Lyaan looked normal when she was born, but when she became four and five months old her upper face started showing deformities, with a retruded upper jaw,” said Ali Halthy, Lyaan’s father.
“She developed breathing problems and had to be tracheostomised at a local hospital in Oman, and she had to undergo cranial surgery as an infant at the age of one, since her head size was not increasing,” he added.
A senior team of specialists from Fortis Healthcare, including Dr Rashmi Taneja, Senior Consultant, Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, Dr Gagan Sabharwal, Maxillofacial Surgeon, and Dr Amitabh Singh, Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery, performed the complex surgery in February this year.
“Crouzon syndrome is characterised by distinctive malformations of the skull and facial region. Such abnormalities may vary greatly in range and severity from case to case, including among affected family members,” Dr Taneja said.
Mid-face was detached
“In Lyaan’s case, we performed the Lefort III Osteotomy, where the mid-face was detached from the skull bone with application of rigid external distractors, also called RED Device, as part of the treatment on the patient,” the doctor added.
Lyaan recovered well and recently her distractor was removed, the doctors added.
“After a consolidation period of four days following the surgery at FMRI, the mid-face and upper jaw was pulled forward 1 mm a day. The distraction was done by her mother,” Dr Sabharwal said.
“The upper jaw was pulled 35 mm in 35 days, after which the family returned to their home for the bones to heal completely,” he added. “They were asked to come back for a follow-up checkup and distractor removal after a couple of months, by which time the distracted bone would have healed,” Dr Singh said.
“The Fortis ENT team has also removed her tracheostomy and Lyaan has started breathing normally through her nose, like any other child,” he added.
She will also have to undergo another set of surgeries at the age of 16 to align her jaws, according to the doctors.