Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur sets a benchmark in Cardiac Surgery: A 14 years old child with CTGA, VSD, PS undergoes Double switch heart surgery to get a new life

On July 23, 2009: The cardiac team at Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur has written a new chapter in the history of Pediatric Heart Surgery in India. An 14 years old male child from Bilaspur has become a rare case to be successfully operated for Congenitally Corrected Transposition of Great Arteries (CCTGA) with VSD and Pulmonary Stenosis. This is a very rare cardiac anomaly and is found in less than 1 percent of all babies born with congenital heart disease.  The cardiac team at Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur, led by Dr. Ratan Das, Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon successfully completed this eight hour surgery on the child without any complications. The name of the operation is Double Switch Procedure (combined Rastelli's and Senning's procedure). This is the first Double Switch procedure operated in entire Eastern India. In India, this rare procedure is performed only at major cardiac centers of Delhi, Channai and Bangalore.

Master Dipesh Srivas, who is from a very poor family of Bilaspur was born as a blue baby and was having breathing difficulty since birth. The family had no money to take the child to big cities where this type of complex surgery is possible.  Last year the Chief Minister of Chattisgarh has started a "Bal Hriday Suraksha Yojna", a project by which the Government of Chattisgarh started paying the expense of treating child with congenital heart disease. After knowing about the project the Srivas family approached Apollo Hospitals, Bilaspur

The diagnosis by the doctors at Apollo Hospitals revealed that the baby was born with Corrected Transposition of Great Arteries with ventricular septal defect and severe Pulmonary Stenosis. In this case the pumping chambers of the heart (ventricles) are reversely positioned so as the main blood vessels arising from the heart( Aorta and Pulmonary artery),  along with there is  a big hole  between the ventricles and a  narrowing of the Pulmonary artery.  Children born with this kind of defect might also have abnormal electrical conduction system, which means they might be highly susceptible to a complete heart block.

 This is one of the rarest cases we have observed in congenital heart defects where the chambers along with the arteries were in the reversed position.  It was a very complex case and we had to perform a numbers of cardiac procedures on the child in one sitting. First we closed the VSD (ventricular septal defect) in such a way that the left ventricular blood can be redirected to the aorta. Secondly to redirect the pure and impure blood to the respective normal ventricles, an atrial switch operation was done. (Atrial switch or Senning operation) and thirdly we joined pulmonary artery with the right ventricle with a valved bovine jugular vein conduit.

 The Child was extubated on second post operative day. Post operatively the child developed jaundice and had some fungal infection. However his jaundice was improved and infection was treated with appropriate medicine.

The child can lead a normal life and will not require any further surgical treatment. The cost of the treatment would be taken care of by "Mukhyamantri Bal Hriday Yojna" of Chattisgarh. The Cardiac team consists of Dr. Ratan Das, Dr. M P. Samal, Dr Ashima Bhelotkar, Dr. Suvendu Laha and Tanmay Acharya.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Ratan Das MS, MCh

Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon

Ph: +919755559264, Email: ratan_k_das@yahoo.com