Slide Tracheoplasty Saves Douglas' Life
Douglas Keats was born with a congenital defect of his windpipe. He couldn't breathe normally, and he didn't have the right-sized airway. It made his first few days of life very difficult. "He was breathing hard when he took a bottle, and they had to put a feeding tube in," says Marshann, Douglas' mother.
Doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center discovered that Douglas' windpipe had not developed properly.
"His upper trachea was absolutely normal and as you'd go down everything seemed normal, but then suddenly, his trachea disappeared and there was a tiny little hole that he was breathing through. How he survived is quite remarkable," says Michael Rutter, MD, pediatric otolaryngologist and director of clinical research at Cincinnati Children's.
"Normally you're born with your trachea supported by little rings of cartilage, but Douglas was missing a few of those. That's very rare. I believe there are only four children in the world that I know of who had that problem."
Douglas had surgery when he was less than a month old.
In Douglas' case, Dr. Rutter and a team of specialists decided to perform a slide tracheoplasty, which required putting Douglas on a heart-lung bypass machine, as well as making a large incision in his small chest.
"A slide tracheoplasty is when you have a very narrow segment of the trachea, and you cut the trachea in two and one end you split at the front. The other end you split at the back, and you slide the trachea across itself so you go from narrow to shorter but much bigger," says Dr. Rutter. "We didn't develop this operation, but we have taken it to new horizons. We've been able to apply it to far more children than was ever initially envisioned for this operation."
The operation was a success and just one day after the surgery, Douglas was breathing normally.
"Cincinnati Children's did an excellent job. They made every effort to make sure the surgery went correctly, and they made sure we felt at ease and all our needs were met," says Russell, Douglas' father.
"The difference at Cincinnati Children's – what sets us apart from other centers in the world who care for these very rare problems – is the team approach in combination with this technique of the slide tracheoplasty," says Dr. Rutter.
Douglas quickly recovered from surgery and was soon doing all the things young boys do. "He was just a different child when I brought him home," says Marshann. "I was amazed, and I'm thankful we still have Douglas because we could've lost him real quick. He's a blessing every day."
