10-day-old baby survives rare beating-heart surgery
POSTED September 4, 2009 - 12:28 | POSTED BY Kangna Agarwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on September 4, 2009 - 13:28
According to the doctors, the baby was suffering from Ectopia Cordis- a very rare congenital defect wherein the heart is abnormally located.
This baby is the first one to survive such a rare medical condition despite the fact that he had a high load of infection when he was brought to AIIMS, the doctors maintained.
Dr. A K Bisoi, additional professor, cardiothoracic surgery, who headed the team said, "The baby's heart was 100% outside his body and there was no space inside to accommodate it. This is world's first baby to have lived so long with this condition and then successfully undergo a beating heart surgery.''
Beating heart-surgery performed on the baby
In order to make space for the protruding heart in his body, the doctors reconstructed the chest cavity by performing a three-and-a-half-hour-long beating-heart surgery instead of putting the baby on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine.
Dr. Bisoi said, "We wanted to keep the risk low. Cardiopulmonary bypass has associated risks and the chances of infection are also there. The baby had a high load of infection that we tried to reduce to a great extent by doing two exchange blood transfusions.''
"We first created a window between the chest and abdomen by displacing the liver and dissecting the diaphragm by 60 degrees. The heart is partly in the abdomen and partly in the chest cavity," he elaborated.
Baby’s condition stable
The doctors have maintained that the baby is awake and responding and they are closely monitoring his condition.
Dr. Sandeep Chauhan, professor, cardiac-anaesthesia said, "After any open-heart surgery, especially beating heart, the vitals do get deranged. But his vitals like blood pressure, pulse, heart rate etc are in the expected range. We are closely monitoring him and we hope he survives."
"The biggest challenge during the surgery was to maintain his vitals. His lungs are not fully developed and he had compromised breathing," Dr. Chauhan added.
The doctors have assured that the baby’s condition is critical but stable and his heart has been properly fixed in the newly created space. At present, the baby is admitted in the cardiac care unit of the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department, AIIMS.
The baby’s mother hasn’t been informed about his critical medical condition. She is admitted in a hospital in Patna as she had delivered a caesarean baby.
His father, Chander Majhi, who had travelled to Delhi to save his child, is extremely happy about the baby’s successful operation. He said, "I'm happy that the surgery was successful but doctors told me that next two days are critical."
