A preterm baby weighing less than a kilogram received a pacemaker for correcting a congenital heart block at a city hospital recently. The baby girl, who was born at 27 weeks of pregnancy, had a heart rate of only 55 to 60 per minute as against the normal 140 to 160 per minute, doctors said.
Deepa Hariharan, senior consultant neonatologist, Sooriya Hospital, along with Prashanth Shah, paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and Ranjit, paediatric cardiologist, performed the surgery on the baby. Worldwide, there were only three reported cases in which premature infants weighing one kilogram had pacemakers implanted, Dr. Hariharan said at an event to mark World Prematurity Day on Saturday.
The baby’s mother was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and was unable to conceive for several years. She had had two miscarriages. Despite steroid therapy during her pregnancy, the baby was born preterm on May 10, 2019 and weighed one kg. The newborn was rushed to Sooriya Hospital for neonatal intensive care.
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“The baby had a congenital heart block. We provided immediate lifesaving care but the heart rate was progressively low. It reached 40 to 45 per minute posing a risk to the life of the baby. We obtained the consent of the parents for implanting a pacemaker. She weighed 900 grams on the day of surgery,” Dr. Hariharan added.
The baby’s chest cavity was too small for the pacemaker and so, the surgeons placed it in the abdomen. The baby was on ventilator support for 70 days. At the time of discharge, she weighed 2.5 kg and was on oral feeds, Dr. Hariharan said.
Earlier, it was considered that lupus would affect only women living in the West, she said, adding: “Now, we are increasingly seeing cases of lupus in women of the reproductive age group here. It is one of the commonest causes of miscarriages and preterm delivery. In babies, it could cause rash, low blood count and low heart rate. The cause for lupus is unknown but it could be associated with lifestyle, stress, pollution, genetic and hormonal factors.”
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Music director Deva was present on the occasion.
Music therapy in the NICU
Preterm babies admitted at the neonatal intensive care unit of the hospital will now listen to music. A study of 76 preterm babies for a period of one year showed playing music at the bedside helped in better weight gain and preventing problems in their heart rates and respiratory patterns. “These are babies who weigh less than one kg. They are stressed in the NICU. We decided to play music as per the choice of parents for one hour a day for three days using a small recorder. We found that babies had better weight gain and a shorter hospital stay,” Dr. Hariharan said.