Nine-day old baby undergoes heart surgery in UP hospital

Lucknow, Sep 18 (IANS) A nine-day-old girl underwent a major heart surgery for a complicated congenital heart disease at the Medanta Hospital.

The infant was a patient of cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD) which involves heart defects that reduce the amount of oxygen supplied to the rest of the body.

Director, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department, Dr Gaurang Majumdar, said, "The baby was brought to us with a complaint of bluish discoloration of the body on the fifth day of birth. Examination revealed the child had complicated CCHD which means her two large blood vessels did not connect to the heart normally."

He said that immediate surgery was planned as patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a small artery providing blood flow to the lungs, was closing, and the baby's oxygen saturation was falling below 50 per cent.

The newborn, who weighed about 2 kg at birth, was admitted and underwent shunt surgery -- a life-saving procedure -- after which she was transferred to neonatal intensive care unit on a mechanical ventilator and discharged within 10 days of admission.

Consultant and head, neonatology, Dr Roli Srivastava said, "There are some heart problems in newborns in which arteries supplying oxygen to lungs are not formed so the baby becomes oxygen-deficient. In such babies, we have to create a shunt between cardiac system and pulmonary circulation to keep lung flow going on."