Mangaluru: “Seven children were diagnosed who had holes in the heart called moderate Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD)”, said Dr. Prem Alva, Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist at A.J. Hospital. The children had recurrent respiratory infections, breathing difficulty while playing and unable to do their normal activities like other children.
An Echocardiogram was done at A.J. hospital to detect the defects and it was also seen that the left of heart was abnormally enlarged with increased heart pressures in some children.
This is a condition where the pure and impure blood get mixed in the heart. Hence it was decided to close these holes in the heart without open heart surgery by the technique called ‘Device Closure of VSD’ using the antegrade route in the heart.
Meticulous planning was done regarding the size of the defect and choosing the accurate size of the device required to close the defect. Team headed by Dr. Prem Alva with Anaesthesists Dr. Gururaj Tantry and Dr.Trevor Sequeira did the procedures.
The procedure went on smoothly in all the 7 children and they were discharged in a stable condition within three days. They are now on follow up and doing well.
“This is the first time VSDs were closed by antegrade technique using ADO 1 devices in Mangalore. A.J. Hospital being the only exclusive Pediatric Cardiac Centre in Mangalore we hope to continue the quality of work,” said Dr. Prem Alva.
All these patients were treated free under various schemes.
