MILAN – A one-day old girl underwent a successful operation on Monday that has never been conducted on a new-born before, the Milan Polyclinic and the San Giuseppe hospital said.

 When Matilde was born, doctors discovered a significant malformation in her left hand, and she had to undergo an operation just hours after her birth. 

 The cooperation between the Milan Polyclinic and the San Giuseppe hospital made the record operation possible, something that has almost never been carried out successfully. 

 Matilde has now been sent home and is well though still has a long road of recovery ahead of her, her family said. 

 When she was born, her third finger was not properly developed and her fourth was swollen by three centimetres. She was immediately transferred to the Milan Polyclinic to the neonatal intensive care unit directed by Fabio Mosca. The paediatric surgeons of the clinic, led by Ernesto Leva and the hand surgeons of the San Giuseppe Hospital directed by Giorgio Pajardi, successfully conducted the operation on her, discovering that the three phalanges of the fourth finger were hidden due to the swelling on her hand. They reconstructed the phalanges and released the parts that had been trapped in the swelling.

 Matilde will have to have more surgery in the next two years to reconstruct her fingers completely, however for now she is well after an operation that has never before been conducted on a one-day-old. 

 “We are very pleased to have made available our experience and our know-how for the success of what was a completely exceptional intervention,” said Pajardi, professor at the University of Milan and Director of the Unit Surgery of the hand of the San Giuseppe Hospital – MultiMedica Group.

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