Rare arterial switch surgery saves life of infant in city
Kolkata: A rare arterial switch surgery has given a fresh lease of life to a month-old baby who was brought to a city hospital from Jharkhand's Dhanbad. The patient was in critical condition when his family members brought him to the private hospital in Kolkata. The 38-day-old boy was taken to a local doctor who told the family members that there was nothing seriously wrong with the patient. However, as his condition deteriorated, the family members decided to shift the baby to Kolkata.
The baby was severely dehydrated when taken to the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital under Dr Subhendu Mandal. After primary investigation, Dr Mandal and his team put the baby under ventilation. Soon, he started the baby with prostaglandin infusion to stabilise his condition.
The baby was diagnosed with transposition of great arteries with small patent ductus arteriosus. The doctors performed the arterial switch procedure on the patient, to correct transposition of the great arteries.
Dr Mandal along with Dr Manoj Daga carried out a detailed assessment on the child's condition with multiple tests, both cardiac and non-cardiac and took all precautionary measures needed. An accurate anatomical diagnosis was done by echocardiography to get a clear picture of his condition.
A thorough screening of comorbidity factors like infection, poor nutrition, deranged liver and kidney function and abnormal neurological condition helped Dr Mandal to take the correct medical decision. This was an extremely critical case for the doctors as the mother had lost her babies in two previous occasions.
Dr Mandal, senior consultant, Department of Pediatric Cardiology, who carried out the operation, said: "Such a rare defect happens to 1 in 3,300 newborn infants. Success rate in these cases is less. In the Western world, we have only 3% mortality, while developing world stands at 15%. It was a difficult decision for us to carry out the operation. We went ahead and successfully switched the great arteries to their natural position and transferred the coronary artery without any damage during the 190 minutes long procedure and cross clamp time of total 85mins."
