Bengaluru: Rekha was 7 months pregnant when an ultrasound discovered that her baby had a ‘duplex’ kidney along with a cyst in the urinary bladder. Moreover, both the kidneys were also enlarged.

“We were shocked when the ultrasound scan reports came. My wife was seven months pregnant and scans showed that our baby had many complications, including enlarged kidneys,” says 33-year-old Praveen, the father of baby Vivaan who had been diagnosed with a “duplex” kidney along with a cyst in the urinary bladder.

“We had no clue as to what to do as we did not want to get an abortion in the seventh month because the risk factors were high, even though many recommended it,” says Praveen.

“When the anxious parents brought Vivaan to me for consultation, the major complications that we saw were that the baby had a duplex kidney on the right side which was very large and also an enlarged left kidney along with a cyst in the bladder.

There was a blockage in both kidneys, which is why both the kidneys were quite enlarged, almost three to four times the normal size,” says Dr Antony Robert, Pediatric Consultant, Columbia Asia Hospital, Hebbal.

He examined the case and decided to conduct a surgery that lasted four hours and in the long procedure, the doctor was able to remove the extra non-functional kidney followed by the cyst in the urinary bladder.

Speaking about the surgery, Dr Antony says, “The operation was a step-by-step procedure and when baby Vivaan was a month old we had to operate upon one kidney. A few months later, the other kidney was operated on and now both have become normal.”

“Today an enlarged kidney is no longer life-threatening for newborns and with the help of advanced technology many such defects can be cured.

Also, the most common problem found these days in unborn babies is that of a dilated kidney or an enlarged kidney,” sums up Dr Antony, according to whom 85% of the cases with enlarged kidneys become normal after the child is one-year-old, and that when the child is brought to the hospital for follow-up, he is found to be perfectly healthy.