Second surgery emoves warts from left hand

A team of six surgeons removed warts from the left hand of "tree man" Abul Bajandar in a two-hour long surgery yesterday.

The team led by Prof Abul Kalam, head of the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, conducted the second surgery, a month after the first one on his right hand.

"His fingers of both hands are now distinguishable. But small procedures for further refinement would continue for about a year," he told The Daily Star.

Physicians are, however, hoping that Abul will be able to partially use the fingers of his right hand in about three months, he added.

Bajandar, 26, has been suffering from epidermodysplasia verruciformis, a rare skin disorder commonly known as the tree man illness, which covers limbs with warts, making it look like a tree branch.

After the surgery was conducted around 1:00pm, Samanta Lal Sen, a noted physician and coordinator of the institute, who was in the team, said the surgery yielded positive outcomes.

With no use of his limbs, Bajandar, believed to be the fourth man in the world with tree man illness, got admitted to the institute at DMCH on January 30.

Sen added that bandages on his left hand would be removed on Tuesday for assessing the progress and dressing.

As the illness was "an inherited skin disease", there was a high risk of relapse, Sen earlier said.