Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Delicate surgery performed

VIJAYAWADA: For K. Peddabbai, an agricultural worker, of Chirala, it was as if a heavy burden was lifted from his heart. Suffering from a rare congenital cardiac malformation, Peddabbhai has been bearing the extra burden for the past 25 years.

Cardio-thoracic surgeons of Dr. Ramesh Cardiac and Multi-specialty Hospital performed another medical feat and gave him a new lease of life by removing the “giant calcified congenital ventricular aneurysm.”

Chief cardiologist and managing director P. Ramesh Babu addressing a press conference here on Tuesday said the patient developed chest pain and heaviness in chest some three to four years ago. A doctor in Guntur told him that he suffered from a cardiac ailment and referred him for further treatment to a hospital in Hyderabad.

The patient went to Hyderabad in August 2007 where he underwent in-patient treatment in a reputed hospital for two months. The hospital authorities told him that an operation was risky and kept dilly-dallying for another two months. The patient returned home unable to undergo treatment in this manner.

About three months ago Peddabbhai was brought to Ramesh Cardiac hospital. The ailment is so rare that it is not covered by the Arogyasri Health Insurance scheme. Only 418 cases have been reported since its first description in 1816, Dr Ramesh Babu said. Fortunately for Peddabbhai the State Government agreed to foot the bill for his operation. “Normally these aneurysms are small to moderate in size but in this case the patient had a giant left ventricular aneurysm which was more than two and a half times the left ventricle itself. It was heavily calcified with papery thin walls. The aneurysm and the ventricle were connected by widen opening of 2.5 by 3 cm. There was also some clotted blood in the aneurysm. Aneurysms caused a threat to life when they rupture or have blood clots, he said.

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