{"id":1998,"date":"2024-07-25T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/toddler-who-had-eye-removed-due-to-rare-cancer-has-prosthetic-developed-just-for-her\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T05:00:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T05:00:31","slug":"toddler-who-had-eye-removed-due-to-rare-cancer-has-prosthetic-developed-just-for-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/25\/toddler-who-had-eye-removed-due-to-rare-cancer-has-prosthetic-developed-just-for-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Toddler who had eye removed due to rare cancer has prosthetic developed just for her"},"content":{"rendered":"

A toddler who had to have an eye removed after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer has \u201cadapted so well\u201d to a prosthetic designed by doctors who relied solely on scans of her face. <\/p>\n

Nuala Mulholland, now a 20-month-old toddler, was diagnosed when she was 10 months old, after her mother realised something was wrong as her eye appeared bloodshot.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It was initially thought Nuala, from Liverpool, had subconjunctival haemorrhage, a usually harmless condition where a tiny blood vessel breaks underneath the clear surface of the eye.<\/p>\n

But her eye then started bulging out, prompting her mum, Megan, to take her to hospital.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Days later the family was informed she had a rare form of cancer <\/strong>which affects an average of only six people in England every year. The condition is known as alveolar soft part sarcoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just horrendous,\u201d Mrs Mulholland, 36, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took her to A&E, I still didn\u2019t think it was something as serious as cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family was faced with the choice of removing the eye or going for radiotherapy, but were warned the latter could have a lifelong impact on Nuala because of her age.<\/p>\n

Mrs Mulholland said: \u201cBasically, for us, we felt like we had to make a good decision from two bad choices \u2013 radiotherapy or removing the eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like a rock and a hard place. We had to make the best decision for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nuala eventually had her eye removed and got the all-clear in January.<\/p>\n

How did doctors design the prosthetic eye?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doctors used a novel method to design and make Nuala\u2019s prosthetic eye, which was less invasive than traditional methods, because of her age.<\/p>\n

Patients who require this type of prosthetic usually face a lengthy process of having a wax mould taken of the eye socket, which is then turned into a silicone mould.<\/p>\n

Nuala\u2019s surgeon, Ankur Raj, a consultant in paediatric ophthalmology at Alder Hey, worked with the prosthetics team at Aintree University Hospital.<\/p>\n

Mr Raj told PA: \u201cYou need to sit there for hours \u2013 you\u2019re not going to get that with a one-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Nuala\u2019s case, the team took a series of MRI scans, CT scans and photographs to help them reconstruct her face.<\/p>\n

The MRI and CT images were used to shape the prosthetic, while photographs were used to match it to the position of the other eye. Colour matching to Nuala\u2019s skin was carried out in person.<\/p>\n

Another advantage to the prosthetic designed for Nuala is it wouldn\u2019t have entailed the toddler being put to sleep, something her parents were relieved about as she had already been given anaesthetic about 15 times.<\/p>\n

She had her first fitting in June, with doctors recommending she keeps it on a few hours each day so she gets used to it.<\/p>\n

Mrs Mulholland said it is \u201camazing\u201d what they have been able to achieve and praised the way her daughter has taken to her new prosthetic.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike everything she\u2019s just adapted so well,\u201d she said. \u201cShe takes a lot of it in her stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been really, really resilient,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A toddler who had to have an eye removed after being diagnosed with a rare…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}