Rare heart procedure done on 11-year-old boy at GRH

Madurai: Balloon aortic valvulopasty, a not-so-common procedure, was performed at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) for the first time on an eleven-year-old boy.

Dean of the hospital, Dr D Maruthu Pandian, told mediapersons here on Thursday that only five or six children out of 1,000 in India were affected by congenital heart problems. If left untreated it could cripple the child or even prove fatal.

Recently, Kayapandi of Kariselkulam near Avaniapuram in Madurai brought his eleven-year-old son Murugan, a Class VI student who had fainted in school, to the hospital.

The boy was found to be suffering from congenital aortic stenosis, where the aorta shrunk leading to improper blood supply, which could lead to breathlessness and cause the patient to faint often.

As the boy was frail and also considering his age and health, doctors decided to not perform an open heart surgery, usually performed to correct such conditions. The surgeons led by cardiac surgeon Dr Balasubramanian and others performed the balloon aortic valvuloplasty for the first time in the hospital on Sept 20 this year.

The procedure was done by inserting a wire through his right groin and introducing it into his heart. A balloon was then passed through wire to the obstructed valve and then inflated to relieve the obstruction.

This procedure was done free of cost. The same at a private hospital would have cost Rs 3 lakh. Doctors said the boy could get his valve replaced at the age of 15, if his health improved.