Marking a major milestone, a team of cardiac surgeons successfully repaired a hole in the heart of a three-year old girl in the first paediatric open heart surgery at the Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital (AJCSH) Dubai.

The parents of the toddler said they are thrilled with her quick recovery as doctors used cutting-edge technology to fast track the girl’s recovery and discharge her within five days, a hospital spokesperson told Gulf News in an interview.

Dr Jamil Khan, Chief Paediattic Cardiology Surgeon at AJSCH assisted by head anaesthesiologist Dr Rajnish Garg, successfully performed the surgery on February 20 to correct a congenital heart defect on Janso, daughter of Egyptian parents living in Sharjah.

Speaking exclusively to Gulf News, Dr Khan said, “Janso was diagnosed with an Atrio-Ventricular Septal Defect (AVSD), a congenital condition which has an incidence [rate] of four to eight cases per 1,000 children and accounts for five to eight per cent of all congenital heart defects.”

“Our heart has four chambers — the left and right auricle and the left and right ventricle. The right auricle and ventricle are separated by the tricuspid valve while the left auricle and ventricle are separated by the mitral valve In addition to this the chambers have a septum or wall between the left and right sides called the intra-arterial and intra-ventricular septum. The baby girl not only had a leaky valves but also septum defect.”

As a result, the child not only required her septum to be repaired but owing to the leak in the valves her oxygenated and deoxygenated blood was mixing, causing a surge of blood in the lungs that was in turn flooding her left auricle.

“This condition was leading to dilation of the heart, leaky valves, frequent respiratory tract infections and in the end would have lead to pulmonary hypertension and would have become inoperable. Surgery is the only option to reverse the condition,” said Dr Khan, who used pericardial tissue to repair the septum and valves.

Dr Khan said the baby’s quick recovery happened owing to a special anaesthesia technique employed by Dr Rajnish Garg, head anaesthesiologist. “Dr Garg used a combination of medications that completely reduced the pain of the child and made quick recovery easier. As soon as the surgery was conducted and our trans-oesophageal cardiogram showed the successful repairs, we were able to wean the baby off the ventilator immediately on the operating table, allowing independent breathing and stabilising her haemodynamics in the Intensive Care Unit. This helped her quick recovery,” said Dr Khan who lead a team of 15 specialists from various medical fields conducting the intricate five-hour surgery.

Dr Mohammad Al Awadi, Chief Operating Officer of the hospital, added: “We are delighted that the surgery was a success and that Janso was discharged as a normal healthy child, and we will continue to monitor her to ensure that she stays a healthy child with God’s help. We are also proud of our paediatric heart specialists and world-class surgeons who took full advantage of Al Jalila’s state-of-the-art operating theatre to deliver this excellent result”

source : gulfnews