An Australian-first operation has been performed on a seven-year-old boy with severe pancreatitis by doctors at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
The surgery last month involved the removal of Gary Wanganeen’s pancreas, with islet cells from the organ “re-infused” into the boy’s liver.
The surgery was 18 months in the making and included an extensive ethical review and international consultation with a United States pioneer in islet cell isolation, Dr Balamurugan Appakalai, who travelled from the University of Louisville in the United States to oversee the procedure.
Gastroenterologist Dr Richard Couper said the liver should start producing insulin and improve the boy’s chance of avoiding diabetes.
“The operation to date seems to be successful,” he said.
“We think that the islet cells, which we extracted from the pancreas are in grafting. We’re optimistic that will continue to improve and his quality of life and getting back to school and doing all the things he enjoys will progress accordingly.”
Dr Couper said if left untreated, Gary would have ended up a diabetic as a result of the pancreatitis and also ran the risk of getting pancreatic cancer as an adult.
The boy’s mother, Chanel Brown, asked doctors to perform the surgery after hearing about the islet auto-transplant procedure on Facebook.
She said her son was on opiates to control severe pain and had missed a lot of school.
“I just looked for pancreas support pages and there’s lots of them in the [United] States,” Ms Brown said.
“When you don’t have much other choices … you’ve got to wing it and give it a go. I didn’t think we’d have a problem with recovery at all because he’s a little fighter.”
Gary said he felt better after the surgery and had already worked out how he was going to explain his large scar to school friends.
“A shark bit me,” he said.
The pancreas was removed on July 14 and taken to St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, where a team isolated the pancreatic cells (islets) that make insulin.
The islets were taken back to Adelaide and put in the Gary’s liver on the same day.
South Australian Health Minister Jack Snelling congratulated the doctors on their work.
“I’m incredibly proud of what this fantastic team of doctors, multi-disciplinary team, were able to do,” he said.
“It really does go and show that the Women’s and Children’s Hospital is leading the nation in the treatment of sick children.”
Royal Adelaide Hospital transplant doctor Professor Toby Coates assisted in the operation.
“The person I really want to single out most is Gary’s mum who became aware of this and the optimal, the best form of treatment for this condition in the world,” Dr Coates said.
“She pushed very hard for us in South Australia to do it.”