Boy with heart 4 times its size operated upon

THE BOY HAD A LEFT ATRIUM, THE UPPER CHAMBER OF THE HEART WHICH RECEIVES OXYGENATED BLOOD FROM THE LUNGS, WITH A VOLUME OF 87 M

NEW DELHI: A 14-month-old Pakistani boy with a heart chamber four-times larger than normal underwent a surgery to correct it, in a private hospital in the city.

The boy had a left atrium, the upper chamber of the heart which receives oxygenated blood from the lungs, with a volume of 87 ml. The normal value for children his age is 12 to 20 ml.

This is the largest left atrium in the age group operated upon and the case has been accepted for publication in the journal ‘The Annals of Thoracic Surgery’.

When the infant came to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital he was unable to eat properly, had recurrent chest infections and had had difficulty in breathing properly.

His growth was also impacted and was just 6.5 kg at the time of admission. The normal weight for a boy of 14 months is around 10.1 kgs.

“Giant Left Atrium is a rare thing in paediatric population but has a significant risk of death. When the size of the left atrium increases it compresses adjacent structures such as the food pipe, spine and the lung vessels,” said Dr Mridul Aggarwal, paediatric cardiologist at SRGH.

The child also had a large hole in the lower chambers of the heart that led to mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.

“Only a few such cases have been reported in children below the age of two. We did a single stage, open heart surgery where the whole was closed, the valve repaired and the left atrium was reduced,” said Dr Raja Joshi, chairman of paediatric surgery at SRGH.