New Delhi: Doctors at AIIMS were able to treat a baby for a heart condition before it was born. The team at the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre successfully completed a balloon dilation in the heart in order for the mother to be able to continue her pregnancy.
The mother is 28 years old and suffered from three miscarriages. After the child's heart condition was diagnosed, the parents wanted to continue the pregnancy and agreed to surgery that could improve the outcome. The team of interventional cardiologists and foetal medicine specialists were able to operate the grape-sized heart of the foetus, reported ANI.
Experts from the Department of Cardiology & Cardiac Anesthesia and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Foetal medicine) were involved in the procedure.
"The foetus and the mother are both doing well after the procedure. The teams of doctors are monitoring the growth of the heart chambers to ultimately determine the baby's future management," said the team after the procedure. "Some types of serious heart diseases can be diagnosed while the baby is in the mother's womb. Sometimes, treating them in the womb may improve the outlook for the baby after birth and lead to near normal development," they added.
The procedure 'Balloon dilation' deals with the obstructed valve in the baby's heart and needs utmost care because it can have a risk to the life of the baby. Doctors use ultrasound for guidance.
A senior doctor in the team explained that they place a needle through the mother's abdomen into the baby's heart. Then a balloon catheter is used to open the obstructed valve and improve blood flow. This is hoped to help the baby's heart to develop better and whatever heart disease the child is likely to have at birth will be less severe.
He added that the procedure has to be quick and precise to avoid puncturing the major heart chamber. "Everything has to be done under ultrasound guidance. Commonly all the procedures we do under angiography, but this can't be done. It has to be done very quickly because you're going to puncture the major heart chamber. So if something goes wrong, the baby will die. It has to be very quick, shoot and dilate and come out."
The procedure was done in 90 seconds.