Girl, 13, cured of rare condition in 'world first'

Kai spent five weeks at the Royal Stoke University Hospital

A teenager has been cured of a rare medical condition following what doctors called a “world-first” treatment.

Kai, 13, was diagnosed with severe chylous ascites, which is when lymphatic fluid collects in spaces within the abdomen.

After years of trying to find a cure, the Bradford girl's family were referred to the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent.

The hospital managed to block and repair a leak in her liver and Kai was allowed to go home five weeks later.

“Throughout her childhood we were under the care of a number of different hospitals to try to find out what the matter was, but nobody knew the cause,” Kai's mother Ning said.

She said they had tried everything before the referral, including restrictive diets and flying to China for treatment.

Dr Mona Mossad, consultant interventional radiologist at Royal Stoke, was recommended to Kai’s family as a national expert in lymphatic intervention.

According to the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), Dr Mossad was the only consultant in the UK who could perform the complex intervention.

Dr Mossad said Kai was in a “difficult situation” as the build-up of lymphatic fluid into her abdomen was causing pressure on her internal organs.

'Challenging procedure'

The first procedure they tried was dilation of the thoracic duct to try and improve drainage, which had never been performed on a child in the UK before, the hospital said.

After this did not work, surgeons then tried to see if the liver was the cause of the leak.

“This was a very challenging procedure, as we needed to visualise and block lymphatic vessels in the liver that measure less than one tenth of a millimetre in adults,” Dr Mossad said.

“Because of Kai’s age and size, we had to especially order smaller needles that would work.”

The leak was discovered in the left lobe of Kai’s liver, which was repaired using a special surgical glue, before 28 litres of fluid was drained from her abdomen.

The youngster was in hospital for a total of five weeks before being discharged on 9 February.

Dr Yvonne Slater, consultant paediatric gastroenterologist, said: “We are all over the moon for Kai, who is the first child to undergo this treatment anywhere in the world.”

Ning thanked the medical team for helping her “special” Kai, adding: “I’m so happy for the excellent care. Everybody was so nice and helpful.”