Rare bypass surgery performed by Chennai hospital

A team of doctors of a private hospital here has claimed to have performed a rare bypass surgery on a 55-year old man, whose heart was on the right side, in a condition referrred to as a mirror image.

The chambers, valves and major vessels of the patient's heart were in the reverse position, in the condition called situs inversus solitaris with dextrocardia.

"Performing a coronary artery bypass surgery is technically more demanding on patients who have displacement of heart by intrathoracic structures", Dr R Ravikumar, Director, Institure
of Cardio Vascular Disease at Chettinad Health City, who
performed the surgery recently, told reporters today.

The surgery took three-and-a-half hours to remove the block in the heart valves at three places of the patient. 

Ravi Kumar, who headed the team, said that one among 10,000 persons will have this kind of congenital heart displacement.

"This surgery was done under the Tamil Nadu government's Kalaignar Health Insurance Scheme for Life saving treatment,"
he said.