Rare heart surgery performed on baby
Scans revealed that the baby’s heart was only 10 per cent functional
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-11-04 06:14 GMT
Coimbatore: It all started with just a bout of cold for three-month-old Vishwa Krishna. His parents initially dismissed it as just common cold, but it turned out to be the life-threatening ALCAPA, a rare heart disease.
The child was struggling to breathe and was brought to the Kovai Medical Center and Hospital. A chest x-ray, an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram suggested that his heart was only 10 per cent functional.
The 64 slice cardiac computerised tomographic scan confirmed that it was an anomalous left coronary artery from pulmonary artery (ALCAPA). The child needed emergency open heart surgery to fix the rare form of Alcapa, a congenital disease, said Dr Prashant Vaijyanath, director, cardiothoracic surgery.
In a normally functioning heart, the left coronary artery connects to the aorta and feeds oxygenated blood to the heart tissue. In Alcapa, the left coronary artery is misplaced and the heart doesn’t get enough oxygenated blood. Without enough oxygen, the heart tissues begin to die, explained Dr Prashant Vaijyanath.
It took about four hours to complete the surgery and the button of the left coronary artery was taken out from the pulmonary artery and transferred to its normal position on the aorta.
Krishna faced long recovery after his Alcapa surgery as his heart healed rather slowly.
He also fought a respiratory infection that slowed this progress. Finally, after 5 days of ventilatory therapy, Krishna was off the respirator. He is progressing well, the surgeon added.