Rare heart surgery performed on infant
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 12
An eight-month-old girl from Faridabad underwent a rare heart surgery involving a combination of surgical and interventional procedure at Max Heart and Vascular Institute here last week.
Enumerating the features of the surgery, the Chairman and Chief Cardiologist of the Institute, Dr Ashok Seth said that Nitika, who weighs 4.8 kg, underwent a 90-minute surgery that “for the first time in the country brought pediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to work together to do a procedure in the operation theatre.”
Dr Seth said that normally, the device that closes the hole in the heart is inserted in an angiography like procedure in the cath (cardiac catherization) lab. “In a small child, you can do an angiography-like procedure but the device is large and the veins are too small for the device to be delivered into the heart. In this case, we inserted the Ventricular Septal Defect closure device through a small hole in the heart with echo control.
We did not use the cardiopulmonary bypass machine which in itself is a rare feat for a patient so small. The aim was to close the large hole due to a ventricular septal defect with minimum complications and minimum bloodloss. The greatest advantage for this kind of interventional cardiology is reduced risks like blood loss, transfusions and arythmic heart beats,” he said.
The team that took up the challenging surgery comprised cardiologist Dr Monesh Tomar and Dr Viresh Mahajan and cardiac surgeon Dr Anil Bhan. Dr Seth is hopeful that this rare procedure would serve as an “advancement in treating many of small children for cardiac defects”.
He said that the child was showing good signs of recovery and would be discharged within a week.