Premature Baby Weighing 1.3 kg Undergoes Open-Heart Surgery

Visakhapatnam: A 34-week premature baby girl, weighing 1.3 kg, has undergone a successful complex open-heart surgery in Visakhapatnam for the first time in the city. The baby was one of the twins and was born prematurely at 32 weeks of pregnancy.

While the other twin baby, a boy, was healthy, the girl developed breathing difficulties shortly after the birth. At the time of her admission, the baby weighed only 1.2 kg. During the cardiac evaluation of a premature neonate, conducted by Dr. Shanti Priya, a pediatric cardiologist discovered a rare congenital cardiac defect in her. This defect is known as Infra-diaphragmatic Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC). To plan for a major open-heart surgery in this neonate, it was necessary to wait until the 34th week of age, to ensure that the lungs have matured sufficiently.

The surgical team was led by Dr. Anil Kumar Dharmapuram who performed an intra-cardiac repair of TAPVC on the baby. The procedure lasted for over eight hours and involved diverting and rerouting the pulmonary veins, which were draining abnormally to the liver and the left side of the heart - the normal route.

Following the surgery, the baby's condition remarkably improved in the neonatal unit. The baby resumed regular feeding and was discharged from the hospital in good health.