Keyhole surgery gives frail newborns the miracle of life

HKWC Neonatal Surgical Service Team
Queen Mary Hospital

The birth of a baby is a blessing, but some are born with gastrointestinal problems and spend the first days of their life in mortal danger. The Neonatal Surgical Service Team in Queen Mary Hospital has been pushing the boundaries of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and last year performed thoracoscopic esophageal repair on two 1.5 kg newborns with congenital esophageal atresia – the youngest and lightest patients to receive MIS in Hong Kong.

The Team handles more than 100 newborn surgical cases a year, most of which involve premature babies with severe intestinal conditions. Team members describe MIS as an ‘infinite improvement’ for neonatal surgery by the predecessors. “As a surgeon, you have to always think out of the box,” the Team members say. “We never thought we would be able to perform MIS when we entered the practice. Until 1999, the world’s first neonate to undergo thoracoscopic esophageal repair was 3.3 kg, and now we have operated on a 1.5 kg baby which is one of the lightest in Asia.” With earlier births and improved survival rates for preterm babies, every improvement is a blessing for the infants, the Team added.

Team members come from different departments and joke that they are a team of ‘paediatricians and surgeons who don’t fight’. They communicate closely, provide perioperative support, and take a holistic approach to the health of the newborns. They have also participated in many emergency operations. “We once received a baby with necrotising enterocolitis during the night shift, and the baby with intubation was in a very poor condition, which put the baby’s life at risk even if we removed the baby incubator for a transfer to the operating theatre,” the Team members recall. “We decided to operate on the baby at bedside. It was so touching as so many adults came together to save such a weak baby. We all have a common wish that the baby grows up healthy.”

Many of these wishes have come true. A baby girl who was operated on after being born prematurely at 24 weeks returned to the hospital to visit the Team when she graduated from university. A baby boy hospitalised for a long period is now a father. “It is our greatest satisfaction to see them come back with smiling faces, living normal healthy lives,” the Team reflects.

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