A three-year-old girl child has been successfully operated at Jipmer for a rare birth malformation of the heart called ALCAPA (Anomalous Origin of Left coronary Artery from Pulmonary Artery).
ALCAPA occurs in 1 in 3 lakh new born and manifests as infirmity of the heart chamber and leakage of the left heart valve (mitral valve).
While normally, the two arteries (right and left coronary arteries) arising from the aorta channel oxygenated (pure) blood to the respective sides of the heart, in ALCAPA the left coronary artery originates from the pulmonary artery instead of from the aorta and hence this artery carries impure blood lacking oxygen.
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According to doctors, this causes severe damage to the left wall of the heart chamber weakening it, and in turn, causes deformity and leakage of the left heart valve (mitral valve).
The condition is closest in its manifestation to a massive heart attack along with severe heart valve rupture occurring in adults.
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The parents who are from Kurur in Villupuram district brought the baby with complaints of breathlessness and poor feeding.
The operation was performed by a team lead by Dr. B.V. Sai Chandran, Head of the department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.
The procedure included translocation of the left coronary artery to aorta and mitral valve repair.
The anesthesiology team included Dr. Satyen Parida, Associate Professor under the guidance Dr. Ashok S. Badhe, Senior Professor of Anesthesiology.
The baby was preoperatively diagnosed by Dr. Mahesh Kumar, Assistant Professor of Cardiology under the guidance of Dr. Santosh Satheesh Head of the Department of Cardiology.
An expert perfusionist team led by P. Mathavan and comprising K. Thanigainathan and A.Rajasegaran were involved in maintaining the blood and oxygen supply to the entire body by operating the heart lung device.
Only choice
Experts stated that surgical correction was the only choice of treatment as delay invariably results in death in infancy. The operation is technically demanding as the size of the coronary artery is hardly around 1 mm at this age and extreme caution has to be exercised in re-implanting its position into the aorta.
For Jipmer, the successful completion of the complex surgery is a validation of the expertise of its team.
Congratulating the team, Dr. S.C.Parija, Director Jipmer said the entire operation which would have cost around Rs. 2.5 - 3 lakh rupees in a corporate hospital was done free of cost at Jipmer.
The child has recovered from the postoperative period and is getting ready for the discharge, hospital authorities said.