Rajasthan: 3-yr-old with born with reverse organ placement operated upon successfully

A 3-year-old having a rare combination of reverse organ placement and a heart defect was successfully treated by cardiac specialists at a city hospital. The two major blood vessels coming out of the heart were in reversed positions and connected to the wrong chambers. Due to the heart defect, the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs was flowing back to the lungs, instead of the body and oxygen-poor blood from the body was flowing back to the body instead of the lungs.

“Shubham (name changed) was suffering from an extremely rare combination of reversed body organs along with a rare congenital heart defect known as Transposition of Great Arteries (TGA),” Dr Prashant Mahawar, Consultant, Pediatric Cardiology at Narayana Hospital said. “It is the condition in which the two major blood vessels coming out of the heart (aorta & pulmonary artery) were in reversed positions. TGA is a result of abnormal development of the fetal heart during the first 8 weeks of pregnancy,” he added.

Kids like Shubham looks blue because of insufficient oxygenated blood circulating in their bodies. “When he came to us, he was already three years old. Older children require a technically advanced type of surgery in which multiple incisions are made at the atria level (blood collecting point of the heart), ” said Dr. CP Srivastava, HoD & Chief Consultant, Cardiac surgery at Narayana Hospital, who performed the complex surgery. “Because every structure was in the revere direction, the technique was more difficult,” he added.

As per medical science, Situs Inversus is a condition in which the internal organs in the chest & abdomen are on the opposite side of their normal position. The heart situated on the right side instead of the left and the liver on the left side instead of the right.

“In this case, while the reversed body organs did not pose any problem to the child as they were functioning effectively even in the reversed positions, the congenital heart defect was causing breathing difficulties, bluish skin tone & poor weight gain. It was accompanied by a rare heart defect known as TGA which is extremely rare and a child with TGA living beyond one year is even rarer. Only about 10% of children with TGA survive beyond one year and these are the ones who need to be operated upon as their chances of survival are good,” Dr Mala Airun, Zonal Clinical Director at Narayana Hospital said.

The Wrong Chambers

The two major blood vessels coming out of the heart were in reverse position and connected to the wrong chambers. Due to the heart defect, the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs was flowing back to the lungs, instead of the body and oxygen-poor blood from the body was flowing back to the body instead of the lungs

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