Belagav̧i Sept̤ 8 : 16 days male baby was referred to KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital from a private hospital with less than 2.5 kg of weight with complaints bluish skin, lips & nails. Baby was not receiving enough of oxygen rich blood. Baby was not accepting feeds, had rapid heart rate with weak pulse & restless. Dr. Danish Memon, Paediatric Cardiologist made a diagnosis of Dextro- Transposition of the Great Arteries (d-TGA) in this baby. It is a very rare birth heart defect that is less frequently diagnosed when baby is in mother’s womb.
In a normal heart, we get normal connections of the great arteries, meaning the aorta arises from the left ventricle, and the pulmonary artery arises from the right ventricle. But in d-TGA, the great arteries have wrong connections (interchanged). The aorta arises from the right ventricle, so it carries the deoxygenated blood returning to right ventricle back to the body, and pulmonary artery arises from the left ventricle, so it carries the oxygenated blood returning from lungs back to the lungs. This arrangement in blood circulation is not sustainable to life unless there is a site of temporary mixing of the oxygenated and deoxygenated. However, the permanent solution is surgical repair of the defect, known as the Arterial Switch Operation (ASO). This is a neonatal cardiac operation, ideally done within 3 weeks of life, where we switch the great arteries back to their normal connection to their chamber. It is considered one of the most critical and technically demanding operations in neonatal cardiac surgery. The complex & critical surgery was performed by Dr. Gananjay Salve, Paediatric Cardiac Surgeon trained in Bangalore, Mumbai and then in Sydney, Australia. The surgery lasted for 8 hours and child withstood the surgery very well. Thanks to excellent anaesthesia back-up offered by Dr. Anand Vagrali & Dr. Sharangouda Patil. Post-surgical management is even more demanding as the baby was on ventilator & was expertly managed by Paediatric Intensivist Dr. Nidhi Goel Manvi. The case was closely monitored by team of experienced Paediatric Cardiologists Dr. Veeresh Manvi & Dr. Danish Memon.
The jubilant parents are extremely happy with outcome of the surgery, baby was discharged on 10th day of surgery, and have expressed their gratitude’s to Dr. Gananjay Salve and entire team of nursing staff for successful outcome of surgery. Dr. Gananjay Salve opined if not operated in time, these babies usually succumb to this congenital heart defect. KLES Hospital has created world-class medical facilities to handle any complex new-born children said Dr. Richard Saldanha, Chief of Cardiac Surgery, & Dr. Mohan Gan, HOD, dept. of CVTS. Dr. Prabhakar Kore, Chairman KLE Society & Dr. (Col) Dayanand, Medical Director of the hospital congratulated the team for excellent team work & giving new lease life to the baby.
