Across the borders for Hypospadias
Hypospadias is one of the most common congenital anomalies affecting more than 4,00,000 newborn babies every year across the globe. The problem is not restricted to any particular country or race. Every year, our team at Hypospadias Foundation lead by Dr A.K. Singal manages kids with hypospadias from across India and also from other countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq, Bangladesh, USA and recently Greece.
Well, the kids from Greece were a whole different story. Though originally from Greece, their father Ioannis Padadatos was employed with a company in Delhi. Master Konstantinos and Spyridon Papadatos, twin babies were born in Delhi to Maria and Ioannis were noted to have hypospadias at birth. The hypospadias was relatively severe in both the children and had associated chordee. The urethral opening was near the scrotum (testis) called Penoscrotal hypospadias. Parents were very hassled as they had never heard of the condition before and now both their newborn babies had severe variety of hyposapdias. Dissatisfied with the information given by pediatricians, pediatric surgeons and urologists in Delhi, they took up to internet for more information. They contacted Dr A.K.Singal, Pediatric Urologist & renowned Hypospadias surgeon who regularly writes articles at www.hypospadiasfoundation.com . Though they had visited the multiple doctors in delhi, what reassured them was the blogs written by dr A.K.Singal about his experience with children who had hypospadias.
After exchange of a few emails, Maria and Ioannis travelled all the way to Mumbai when the babies were 6 months old, in Nov 2013 to consult Dr A.K.Singal at Fortis Hospital in Vashi. Since the right age of surgery for hypospadias is 6 – 15 months, the parents elected to get the surgery done as soon as possible. After the blood tests, the parents again came to Mumbai in December to get the surgery done for both the kids. Master Spyridon underwent surgery on a Monday while Konstantinos underwent surgery on Tuesday. Though both had severe hypospadias and the parents were counseled that a two staged correction may be needed, the whole hypospadias surgical correction was performed in one stage using an Onlay Island Flap urethroplasty of which Dr Singal is an expert. The correction of penile curvature (chordee correction) and formation of new urinary tube (urethroplasty) were all performed in one stage.
After one more day post-surgery in Mumbai, the family travelled back to Delhi and kept in regular touch with Dr Singal via email. Dr Singal visited them one week later in Fortis Hospital in Delhi while attending a conference. Finally the catheter (urinary pipe) was removed after ten days of surgery and babies passed urine in good thick stream signifying a successful outcome in one stage. Now almost nine months after hypospadias surgery, both the babies are doing extremely well.
The family has now shifted to Doha, Qatar but they have taken a lot of India with them and most of all fond memories. We at Hypospadias Foundation are very happy to see the kids grow well and pass urine from a normal opening.
Dr Singal adds “With the advances in instruments and sutures plus better surgical techniques, we are able to do single stage correction for even severe hypospadias in most cases. Rarely we need second surgery and that too if there are complications in the first hypospadias surgery. I am happy that Maria and Ioannis trusted us for management of their children for hypospadias. They came with full faith and trust and that made my job so much easier. I will always remember their family and their beautiful kids. It was indeed a joy meeting them and knowing them. Sometimes I wonder as a hypospadias surgeon what kind of leap of faith the parents must take to travel in an unknown country to an unknown doctor and trust him/ her with the lives of their little ones. I truly appreciate their courage and faith.”
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