Madurai doctors remove groundnut stuck in girl’s bronchus

MADURAI: Doctors in a private hospital in Madurai successfully treated a one-year-old girl by removing a groundnut from her bronchus (tube that connects trachea (windpipe) to the lungs.

The girl child from Bengaluru was recently referred to the ENT department of Velammal Hospital with difficulty in breathing for more than a month. Doctors learned from the girl’s mother that she was doubtful about accidental aspiration of a groundnut.

On examining the child, ENT surgeon Dr Rajavel and Paediatrician Dr Jeyabalaji suspected the presence of a foreign body in her airway with reduced air entry into the left lung. Imaging study (CT-Thorax) showed a foreign body in the left main bronchus which caused reduced air entry to the left lung.

A team of doctors, including Dr Rajavel, Dr Jeyabalaji and Dr Nithin Ragav, with the support of the anaesthesia team of Dr Manikandan Bose, Dr John Santha Vinodhan and Dr Poornima performed bronchoscopy procedure to remove the groundnut and restore air entry to the left lung.

“Without the timely intervention, the child would have had a compromised left lung. Bronchoscopy in a one-year-old child is a high-risk procedure. The procedure was done in a precise manner with no complications. The child is now symptomatically better and was discharged from the hospital after 48 hours of observation,” added Dr Rajavel.