A difficult and potentially dangerous heart surgery was performed successfully in the city on an 18-year-old youth from Mehsana who is suffering from Marfan syndrome.
A difficult and potentially dangerous heart surgery was performed successfully in the city on an 18-year-old youth from Mehsana who is suffering from Marfan syndrome. Sources in medical circles said that this is perhaps the first time in Ahmedabad that this procedure had been performed on such a young patient.
Patients with Marfan syndrome are unusually tall with long, thin arms and legs and spider-like fingers. Besides affecting the lungs, skin and the eyes’ retina, the condition causes stretching and weakening of the aorta, the main blood vessel that takes blood from the heart to the body. This affliction to the aorta - called aortic aneurysm - can cause it to burst and lead to the patient’s death.
The patient, Sunny Patel from Mehsana district, was on the verge of death when senior heart surgeon Dr Utpal Shah of Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad acted in time and operated on him and saved his life.
“The coronary artery surgery that had to be performed on Patel is considered one of the most complex and demanding operations, with a high mortality rate of 25-30%. When Patel was brought to our hospital late in the night on October 11, he was suffering from crushing chest pain,” Dr Shah said.
Patel’s family members had first taken him to their family physician who conducted an ECG test on him. As the test indicated the possibility of a heart attack, Patel was given a clot-dissolving injection but when the pain persisted, he was referred to Sterling Hospital. Shah said that on further investigation, they found that the youth’s aorta had deteriorated drastically, so much so that it was on the verge of rupture.
“There was a very real risk of the aorta rupturing if kept untreated. The chance of death was increasing by the hour,” Shah said.
After taking the consent of Patel’s family, a team of qualified doctors led by Shah took five hours to graft healthy tissue to the heart and fit the aorta with a new valve.
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