Heart surgery goes cosmetic at government hospital

Chennai: The Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital has performed a first, minimally invasive cosmetic cardiothoracic surgery on a 16-year-old girl from Alivalam of Tiruvarur district. This is the first government hospital to perform such a surgery as the cost involved is nearly double that of regular sternotomy.

The plus-one student, Valarmathi, felt giddiness and teachers in a government higher secondary school that she studied suggested she visit a hospital. “She went to JIPMER, Pudu­cherry, and from there she came to our hospital.

She was suffering from atrial septal defect and fainted in the school due to giddiness. Moreover, she was just 35 kg,” said Prof K.S. Gan­esan, professor of card­iovascular and thoracic surgery, Rajiv Gan­dhi government general hospital.

As the girl was very young, considering her fut­ure, the doctors decided to go for minimally invasive surgery by a four cm sub mammary inc­ision with no blood los­s.

“The surgery was per­formed on October 22 and within three days, she was able to lift her schoolbag. She can lead an absolutely normal life,” said Dr K. Raja Ve­n­­­katesh, professor an­d HoD, department of ca­r­d­iothoracic surgery.

In the case of sternotomy and open heart surgery, the patient cannot lift weight for six months, whereas, in this procedure, there’s no cutting of bones. “There are many advantages like no infection and mi­ni­mum number of hospital stay,” explained Prof Ga­nesan, adding tha­t more such surgeries wo­u­ld be performed in th­e hospital.

He also informed that the hospital might soon get robotic surgical system costing nearly Rs 20 crore for cardiac surgery.