AIIMS surgeons have removed an ice-pick that had pierced a person’s lungs, through minimally invasive video-assisted surgery.
The ice pick had narrowly missed the 27-year-old’s spine and got lodged in his left lung when he was stabbed. Surgeons pulled out the ice pick by performing VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery), which is a type of minimally invasive thoracic surgery, using small incisions and special instruments to minimise trauma. It does not require the chest to be opened up in order to reach the lungs or oesophagus.
The ice pick had perforated the upper left lung and if not removed on time, it would have led to infection and intense internal bleeding leaving him choking to death
Professor of surgery at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, Biplab Mishra said the patient was initially taken to a nearby private hospital where they performed a CT scan of the area. He was brought to AIIMS after his condition was judged to be critical. “Classically thoracotomy is done in such a case where we open the chest so that the impaled foreign body can be removed under direct vision and control. But in this case we achieved the same using minimally invasive technique which is also called Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) and thus the impaled ice pick was safely removed (under proper vision and control).The whole procedure took less than an hour,” Dr Mishra said.
AIIMS Trauma centre chief Dr Rajesh Malhotra, said that the ice pick had perforated the upper left lung and if not removed on time, it would have led to infection and intense internal bleeding leaving him choking to death.
“When the foreign body is removed or pulled out, the bleeding increases. This is why it is strongly advised people should never try to pull out any impaled foreign object on their own. They should be removed on the operating table under general anaesthesia by a surgeon,” he said. The patient was discharged on the seventh day of the operation.
