Word: suruga
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...parents, Mina and Brian Lewis, refused to accept the sentence of death. They consulted Dr. Orvar Swenson, a noted pediatric surgeon at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He, too, was pessimistic. He recalled, without recommending it, a modified operation devised by a Japanese surgeon, Dr. Keijiro Suruga, who reported that it had succeeded in some cases. Mina Lewis did some research of her own and found a new article by Suruga in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. Then, using her experience as a travel agent, she quickly arranged a family trip to Tokyo in early January...
...Juntendo University, Suruga, 52, explained his special interest in biliary atresia: for reasons unknown it is far more common in Asia than in Western countries. Suruga's early techniques for correcting the condition proved to be only palliative, not curative. In 1968 he hit upon a method that he has since used in 40 cases, with 30 children now surviving. It was a variation of this technique that he used for William...
...child had one thing in his favor: he was less than 90 days old and his liver so far had suffered relatively little damage. As Suruga explained, after three months the backed-up bile is likely to cause irremediable cirrhosis of the liver. Another factor was most unfavorable: the bile ducts in the liver were the tiniest imaginable-averaging only one five-hundredth of an inch in diameter. Suruga is not hopeful unless they are twice that size, but he nevertheless decided to make the attempt...
...Curve. The surgery lasted ten hours. Almost 3/2 hours were spent dissecting the adhesions of scar tissue left by an earlier operation in New York to correct an intestinal blockage. Only then was Suruga able to snip out an eight-inch section of jejunum (the upper part of the small intestine) and to fashion it into the shape of a U (see diagram). Next he trained his surgical microscope, working at 20-to 40-power magnification, on the minuscule bile ducts. He exposed them, and with incredibly fine needlework sewed one branch of the U over them like a funnel...
...temporary precaution, Suruga led the bend of the U to the abdominal wall and made an opening there; with hair-thin nylon threads running to it from inside the bile ducts to make sure that they stay open, this "window" can be used to draw off fluid or to instill medication. In a few months, if all goes well, the base of the U and the abdominal opening can be closed...