Heart Surgery performed on a 9 year old through back

A team of doctors led by Dr. Mahendra Bafna, Cardio Thoracic Surgeon at Sahyadri Hospital at Pune are taking a step ahead in the area of innovative heart surgeries in children.

Heart surgeries usually involve making an incision in the front, on the chest. This results in big and unsightly scars which are highly visible through the upper part of chest and below the neck which patients take daily efforts to hide.

To counter this, Dr. Mahendra Bafna and team conducted an innovative procedure named ‘Posterior Thoracotomy’ where the incision for the surgery is made on the back. Patients who were operated with this procedure were between the age group of 4 years to 9 years and were diagnosed with hole in their hearts. One of these cases was of a 9 year old girl who showed symptoms of breathlessness and palpitations. The parents of the child had also informed the doctors that she did not gain much weight. With the help of their expert skills and a thorough diagnosis using 2D Echo technology, Dr. Bafna and team found out that the child had a hole in her heart. Post the surgery, the child was kept in the hospital for 3 days with minimal pain. She is now showing none of the symptoms and has started gaining weight.

The procedure’s biggest benefit is that scars are not visible to the patient throughout their life. This is especially beneficial for female babies and children due to psychological and social reasons. The benefits of this type of surgery also include the use of a special anesthesia which is more effective in decreasing the pain caused to the patient and lesser time to recuperate from the operation.

Dr. Mahendra Bafna, Cardio Thoracic Surgeon at Sahyadri Hospital, Deccan Gymkhana said, “The patient showed typical symptoms of heart defects which were palpitations, insufficient weight gain and breathlessness. This procedure will help children get healthy faster. Most importantly children will forget about heart surgery soon with no psychological and social scar when they grow up. So far, the team has conducted this procedure on 15 children with 100% success rate.”