Trichy , 16th January 2025 : An 8-year-old girl hailing
from Perambalur District had undergone evaluation for recurrent respiratory
infections and poor weight gain.
Initially, the paediatrician who examined her had identified a heart
murmur. For the unversed, a heart murmur
is an unusual sound in the heartbeat that can sound like whooshing, swishing,
rasping or humming. The paediatrician
suspected a heart disease, and she was referred to a Chennai-based hospital. A cardiac MRI was obtained there, and the
patient’s heart disease was identified.
However, no treatment plan was finalised.
It was in this
scenario, the girl’s family approached Kauvery Heartcity Hospital, Trichy
seeking a second opinion. The family,
however, could not provide details of the previous medical evaluations or
records. Paediatric cardiologist Dr.Maniram Krishna of Kauvery Heartcity
diagnosed the condition as a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). VSD, in fact, is
a hole between the two lower chambers of the heart, and it is a congenital
defect. The defect is closed using a
plug, which in the medical parleys is known as an occluder device. However, the
doctors were not entirely sure if this was the right approach as the child had
some unusual features. They included an outpouching of the left lower chamber of
the heart called a diverticulum. The
hole was present inside this outpouching. This posed two relevant questions: Is
the wall of the outpouching good enough to hold the plug? What is the best way
to access the hole?
To find answers
to these questions, the medical team at Kauvery Heartcity Hospital headed by
Paediatric Cardiologist Dr.Maniram Krishna and Cardiac Anaesthetist Dr.Pravin
Kumar subjected the patient to a detailed evaluation. Echocardiogram confirmed
that the wall of the diverticulum had adequate strength. Later, the medical team also obtained a CT
angiogram. This allowed the doctors to
plan the exact roadmap for carrying out a hassle-free procedure.
“On completing these examinations, we realised
that the defect was best closed from the neck instead of the leg, and hence the
procedure was done under general anaesthesia by accessing the blood vessels
from the neck and the leg,” said Dr.Maniram. The defect was successfully closed
with a plug. “The entire procedure went smoothly as we expected based on the CT
angiogram,” Dr.Pravin Kumar noted.
Having completed the procedure successfully, the smiling child went home
the very next day. It is noteworthy that the child’s family comes from a
non-descript village, and she was treated under the Chief Minister’s
Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS) with no cost to the family. The
unique combination of detailed pre-procedure evaluation and the advanced CT
scanners available at Kauvery Heartcity Hospital played a crucial role in
planning out each step of the procedure before the child was wheeled into the
cath lab for best treatment outcome.
Congratulating
the medical team which operated upon the patient, Kauvery Heartcity Hospital
Executive Director and Group Head of Cardiac Sciences, Dr.T.Senthil Kumar said
the successful procedure reiterated Kauvery Heartcity Hospital’s leadership
position in treating complex cardiac issues.
Interestingly,
the Department of Paediatric Cardiology at Kauvery Heartcity Hospital has
performed more than 500 keyhole procedures in children and adults with birth
defects in the heart during the past 5 years with world class results. At this juncture, it is also relevant to note
that Kauvery Hospitals believe in extending quality treatment to everyone
irrespective of his or her financial or social background including
beneficiaries of Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme
(CMCHIS).