Vascularized lymph node transfer, a highly specialized and complicated surgery requiring about 8 to 10 hours, was done in the city recently on a 52-year-old teacher from Madhya Pradesh. This was the first such procedure done in Central India on a patient of elephantiasis — which is considered as non-treatable and has a predominant prevalence in Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, and parts of Madhya Pradesh.

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The surgery was performed at VIMS Hospital six months ago. Plastic, microvascular, and hair transplant surgeon Dr Suresh Chaware and his team performed this surgery. Doctors were following up on the case since then and reviewing results. In the first week of October, the patient has shown significant and lasting improvement after which doctors claimed success in this mode of treatment.

Lymphedema or elephantiasis is a disease of lymphatic vessels. As blood vessels in our body, there is a third system of tiny vessels that help in the transportation of fluid from tissue, especially underneath of skin. These are called lymphatic vessels. If these lymphatic vessels are damaged due to infection like filariasis, it leads to the accumulation of fluid underneath the skin leading to elephantiasis. As of now, there is no cure for elephantiasis. Only preventive medicines are available.

The person suffering from this disease becomes incapacitated and his mobility becomes restricted due to weight, size, and various complications like infection, cellulitis and skin necrosis. This surgery can bring patient’s life on track.

According to figures available at divisional health office, there are 25,725 reported cases of lymphatic filariasis in Nagpur division alone. Chandrapur district has 11,329 cases, highest in Maharashtra. Over 45,000 such cases are in Vidarbha and this surgery can help them.