Kalaburagi’s United Hospital saves man who was assaulted on face

The 33-year old assault victim suffered from displacement of facial bones and muscles, blocked airway, contamination of tissues and damage to eyes apart from losing two litres of blood at the time of admission on April 11

A team of experienced doctors from different disciplines at the Kalaburagi branch of United Hospital, a super-speciality centre for accident trauma and critical care, successfully performed a complex surgical procedure to rescue a patient from the jaws of death.

Addressing a media conference at the hospital in Kalaburagi on May 18, Dr. Veena Siddareddy, Director and Senior Ophthalmologist, said that the male patient, aged 33 years, was assaulted with a sharp object. He suffered an injury on his face and was battling for life when he was admitted around 10.20 a.m. on April 11. He had lost about two litres of blood. His his facial bones and muscles had been displaced, apart from severe contamination of the exposed tissues.

“There were degloving soft tissue injuries extending from the right tragus of the right ear up to the left ear with comminuted and avulsed leForte II and III, along with comminuted right ZMC fractures. The right eye had suffered severe injuries. Tissues around the left eye were critically damaged with displacement of both upper and lower eye-lids. Major facial bones were fractured and displaced, and tissue was lost. Just as the patient was admitted, a team of doctors, which included anaesthetist Dr. Manjunath Reddy and ENT surgeon Dr. Kedarnath Ratkal, performed an emergency tracheotomy at the well-equipped operation theatre in the new block of United Hospital and successfully cleared the blocked airway. The patient was put on mechanical ventilator support in Surgical Intensive Care Unit for a day to get him stabilised,” Dr. Veena said.

Once the patient was stabilised, the second round of reconstructive surgery was performed for four hours on the next day by a team of doctors, including plastic surgeon Dr. Pavan Patil, ENT surgeon Dr. Kedarnath Ratkal, oral and maxillofacial surgeons Dr. Udupi Krishna Joshi and Dr. Aaisha S., under general anaesthesia administered by Dr. Sudarshan Lakhe, Dr. Liyakhat Ali, Dr. Manjunath Reddy and Dr. Shrikant Rathod.

Reconstruction of the face involving the nose, right ear, left periorbital region and bilateral cheeks was successfully carried out in a complex surgery that stretched for four hours.

“The patient also had had life-threatening brain injuries and skull bone fractures, which carried a high risk of fluid leak from the brain into the nasal and oral cavity. This challenging situation was non-operatively managed with close observation and medicines by Dr. Vijaysagar Sharma. We were not sure of the restoration of his vision. But, we could do it. The vision of the left eye is almost restored. We could not do the same for the right eye, which was severely damaged, despite our best efforts and multiple rounds of surgeries,” Dr. Veena said.