Doctors at Apollo Children’s Hospital recently treated a five-month-old baby with a rare condition of left atrial appendage aneurysm, a cardiac malformation.
According to a press release, the baby was brought to the hospital after she developed breathlessness. Doctors found that the left atrium, which is the upper chamber of the heart, had aneurysm. It had become so huge that it compressed the heart and lungs.
The baby was struggling for breath because of heart failure and lung collapse. The surgical team performed an open heart surgery on the baby and the aneurysm was closed and excised.
Neville Solomon, paediatric cardiac surgeon at the hospital, said the baby did not tolerate the procedure as the blood accommodated in the aneurysm was suddenly diverted into the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart. The left ventricle failed and the mitral valve started leaking acutely. The baby was placed on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) but the heart was hardly contracting the first night and life-saving medications were added to stabilise, he said.
Over a period of 48 to 72 hours, the heart started to recover and the baby was taken off ECMO. After a few days on the ventilator, the baby’s condition progressed steadily, he added.
The condition is rare with less than five cases among children below one year being reported, and less than 10 cases among those aged below two, the release added.
