M'lore docs perform rare heart surgery on 3-year-old baby

When examined by Dr Praveen Shetty at Yenepoya Cardiac Centre, Diksha was blue in color and at 9 Kg was grossly underweight. Echocardiogram by Dr Praveen Shetty revealed a rare, complex cardiac anomaly called Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous connection (TAPVC), wherein the oxygenated pure blood instead of draining to the left side of the heart, was totally connected to the right side.

On March 16, with a team comprising of Chief Cardiac Surgeon Dr Harish R and Cardiac Anesthesiologist Dr Rakesh M G, Anesthesiologist Dr Salman Sheikh, Perfusionist Preetha V and paediatrician Dr Murali Keshav, the heart was stopped using Heart Lung Machine and the abnormally draining pulmonary veins were redirected to the left side of the heart.

Post operatively, Diksha recovered smoothly. TAPVC is a rare birth defect of the heart seen only in 4 to 6 per 1,00,000 live births and management of such a complex heart problem is very risky and is done in only the best of cardiac centers, states a press release.