A leading multispecialty healthcare chain in India, on May 10 announced the successful treatment of a woman with multiple heart defects, in a single-stage surgery that lasted for over seven hours.

The woman aged 55, presented to emergency care with severe chest pain and back pain along with high blood pressure. A coronary angiogram was done as her ECG was abnormal.

"When the catheter was being passed through an artery in the groin, it was found that it could not be negotiated into the heart because of a congenital narrowing of the aorta called 'Coarctation of Aorta'. Therefore, an angiogram was done by approaching the arm.

This revealed a critical block in the artery supplying the left ventricle (coronary arteries) and that needed intervention as well," says Dr KP Suresh Kumar, Chief Cardiologist at the hospital.

Further evaluation threw up another surprise in the form of a congenital abnormality in her aortic valve. The aortic valve was bicuspid (having two leaflets instead of three), with a significant leak (Aortic Regurgitation). A Bicuspid aortic valve is present among 0.5-1.4 per cent of the world population.

"She required four procedures to rectify the defects in her heart. First was a bypass surgery to deliver adequate blood flow across the obstructed left anterior descending artery. The second was the repairing of coarctation of the aorta and the third, was a replacement of the leaky aortic valve."

"To make things more complicated, it was found during the surgery that she had a very narrow base to which the aortic valve was attached. This is technically called 'narrow aortic root'. This required another procedure of widening the root to implant an artificial valve," added Dr AR Raghuram, Senior Consultant Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon at the hospital.

All four procedures were successfully completed through a single 15 cm incision in the front of the chest and the procedure took seven hours to complete. Her high blood pressure was also controlled after the surgery. Post-procedure, she made a steady recovery in the cardiac ICU.

Speaking on the success of the surgery, Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, Co-founder & Executive Director of the hospital said, "The woman underwent multiple surgeries which lasted for over seven hours. She showed tremendous willpower to recover; she endured all the procedures and treatment boldly, and was fully awake and talking the next day after the surgery! The expertise and skill of Dr Raghuram, Dr K P Suresh Kumar and their team have helped detection of multiple defects of the heart and correct them during one operating session, with minimal incision."

The woman recovered completely and was discharged on the fifth postoperative day with an excellent surgical outcome, normal blood pressure and good heart function.