Miracles of Polish medicine. What have Polish doctors and scientists done in 2021?

Some achievements of doctors and scientists who support them may, perhaps rightly, be associated with miracles. We present a list of ten such achievements from 2021. All of them happened in Poland, they are worth being proud of.

1. This year, a breakthrough operation was performed by doctors from Gdańsk. The patient was a 3-year-old girl whose head was almost literally reattached
2. In turn, in Poznań, a team of specialists performed the first lung transplant in Poland in a patient whose lungs were damaged as a result of coronavirus infection.
3. 2021 is also an important year for cardiology – two important heart valve implantation operations were performed
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

They sewed the baby’s head on

Numerous websites, not only medical ones, wrote about it. Doctors from the Copernicus hospital in Gdańsk, during a six-hour operation, actually reattached the head of a 3-year-old girl injured in a car accident.

After the car hit a tree, ligaments and bones were torn in the girl sitting in the car seat. The baby’s head was mostly on the muscles and skin. Luckily, the spinal cord was not severed.

Using their own innovative method, doctors used, inter alia, with small screws, the so-called Kirschner wires as well as special plates to stabilize the broken spine.

– My daughter is gaining strength, she is getting nicer, there is no more probe. You can see improvement every day. She started to exercise, she even sat on my lap. Soon we will go to a hospital in Wrocław for further rehabilitation – the mother of the little patient said in an interview with Dziennik Bałtycki.

Robot Navio in Poland

The first Navio orthopedic robot in the country was delivered to the hospital in Ostrów Mazowiecka. With its help, specialists implant knee prostheses. They call this technique “revolutionary” and “dream come true”. Thanks to it, it is possible to achieve much greater precision during the procedure and shorten its time, and the patient recovers faster and has a lower risk of complications.

According to the hospital, the device that was delivered to Poland is also the first in Central and Eastern Europe. Doctors from all over the country are already coming to Ostrow for training in the use of the robot. Device incl. creates a virtual, three-dimensional model of the knee and prevents too much interference with the joint.

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Pioneering implantation of the MyVal valve

Specialists from the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk performed a transcatheter valve implantation into a damaged biological prosthesis, already functioning in the patient’s body (a “valve to valve” procedure), in a mitral position from the access through the interatrial septum. According to doctors, such a procedure is dedicated to patients for whom the surgical operation poses too much risk.

The patient was an 81-year-old man. The cardiac surgeons performed the operation through a puncture in a femoral vein. They introduced the valve into the right atrium, and then, through the interatrial septum, into the left atrium.

– We were the first in the country and one of the first in the world to use the Meril MyVal valve. It is characterized by a high flexibility of the distal part, therefore, navigation in the small space of the right and left atrium was surprisingly easy, and the procedure itself lasted only 40 minutes – said Dr. Dariusz Jagielak, one of the doctors conducting the procedure.

1. 11 new things we learned about the human body in 2021

New lungs after COVID-19

Specialists from the University Clinical Center implanted 42-year-old Mr. Michał with new lungs after his own was destroyed by SARS-CoV2 infection.

Previously, the man, due to his condition, was connected to a device that oxygenates blood extracorporeally for 40 days. After the surgery, it was time for a complicated rehabilitation, but the efforts of the entire team gave excellent results.

– This is a great deal for me. I feel fine and I don’t feel any discomfort. A lot of work has been done here, it is a great team that interacts well, and this is very important for every patient – said the patient.

1. Also read: What do lungs look like after COVID-19?

The smallest valve for an infant

A group of doctors from the University Clinical Center of the Medical Academy in Gdańsk implanted the smallest mechanical heart valve.

According to the center, the patient was only a 2-month-old child, weighing 3,8 kg, with a congenital defect – a common atrioventricular canal and an abnormal subvalvular apparatus.

Earlier treatments performed on the girl did not bring any results. The child developed severe heart failure after them. The implantation of the smallest Abott’s Masters valve available in the world came to the rescue.

Specialists from the clinic emphasize that this type of surgery in children under 1 year of age is rare, and with a child weighing less than 4 kg, it is one of the smallest patients in the world.

1. See also: Heart failure is an epidemic of the XNUMXst century

Made-to-measure prosthesis

Surgeons from the Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Clinic of the Medical Faculty of the Medical University of Warsaw performed a pioneering operation of implantation in the knee. It was a double, partial endoprosthesis prepared especially for the patient.

The patient was a 52-year-old woman with chondromalacia and pain that made it difficult for her to move normally. The Episurf implant perfectly matches the shape, location and extent of the damage. As a result, only the damage itself can be repaired, without having to replace the entire joint.

Operation like “Star Trek”

This is how specialists from the University Clinical Hospital in Opole described the procedure of heart valve implantation, during which the doctor used three-dimensional images of the heart displayed in special glasses, in the technology of augmented reality. The system called CarnaLife Holo was created by the Polish company MedApp.

– The uniqueness of this operation is that the three-dimensional holographic image of the heart was used in real time, i.e. during valve repair – said Prof. Sacha.

As he emphasized, until now, holography has been mainly used at the stage of preparation for surgery. The center in Opole is the second in the world where MitraClip valve implantation was performed using holographic imaging.

A journey into the brain

When neurosurgeons from the Medical University of Piastów Śląskich in Wrocław conducted an operation on the open brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease, scientists from the Laboratory of Brain and Mind Electrophysiology of the Gdańsk University of Technology, using special electrodes, recorded the activity of various centers, including related to memory or eye movement. The conscious patient was carrying out various mental tasks during this time.

– We took the unique opportunity to record the activity of the brain and eye movements as well as the constriction and dilatation of the pupils using an advanced eye tracking system operating on the principle of ‘CyberOko’ technology: with a special infrared camera and a computer monitor placed in front of the patient during surgery – he explained Dr. Michał Kucewicz from PG.

Such studies could help understand how the brain and memory work, and this could lead to new treatments for various disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and senile dementia, the researchers said.

A new method of treating scoliosis

Specialists from the Department of Neurosurgery of the University Teaching Hospital in Wrocław carried out the first operations to treat scoliosis in children using an innovative method.

The method was developed by the Americans. Two years ago, one of its creators carried out such a demonstration procedure in Poland, but the country still uses the older approach, which consists in permanently stiffening the spine. Although it improves the patient’s condition, it is associated with a significant impairment of the ability to move.

A new technique called VTB (Eng. Vertebral Body Tethering) meanwhile, allows the spine to be almost naturally elastic. It uses bolts screwed into the coils and connected with an elastic cord.

– The convex part of the curved spine is anchored with screws and a rope, which inhibits its growth. The other, concave side may grow until the spine straightens – explains Dr. Wiktor Urbański, who has already introduced a new method. After a few weeks of recovery, the patient can even play sports.

A breakthrough method of cancer treatment came to Poland

Since September, advanced cell and gene therapy CAR-T, used in the treatment of leukemia, is reimbursed for patients over 25 years of age. This method uses the patient’s own genetically modified lymphocytes to fight the cancer.

– This is a breakthrough in the treatment of cancer in Poland, because from September 1 we are reimbursing one of the most innovative therapies for cancer patients – said Minister of Health Adam Niedzielski.

Also read:

1. Personalized medicine in the treatment of lung cancer. A new hope for cancer patients?
2. We got a second life. What does it look like now?
3. Cardiologist: a person is as old as his blood vessels
4. Scientists have learned the secret of longevity? The answer may be in the gut

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