Doctors use girl’s heart cover to fix her valve

Thirteen-year-old Kala Raut  was lucky to be operated on by the doctors of Asian Heart Institute who were visiting Shirdi to inaugurate the new operation theatre at Sai Baba hospital on Sunday. Raut was suffering from rheumatic heart, a condition in which the heart valves (flap-like structures which prevent the blood from flowing backwards) are damaged.

Raut’s heart valve had narrowed due to too much calcium. Dr Ramakant Panda, vice chairman and managing director of Asian Heart Institute and his team, who were visiting the city for an event, decided to operate on Raut when they were told about her case. They reconstructed the entire valve with her pericardium (heart covering). 

The left side valve has two leaflets. Operating on both the leaflets at the same time is very dangerous.

“The existing valve was too narrow and had too many calcium deposits, so they had to be cleaned, and a new full-sized valve had to be worked out. The first complexity was that at 13 years of age, the valve is not full sized. Hence, one cannot use a full-sized valve,” said Dr Panda. The other problem was since she was a girl, putting in a metal valve would have an effect on her marriage and motherhood.

Dr Panda said, “In case of a metal valve, the patient has to take blood thinning medicines. During pregnancy, these medicines can cause bleeding or lead to defects in the child. We, therefore, didn’t want to replace the damaged valve with a metal one.”

In Raut’s case the leaflets had contracted. “We removed the damaged leaflets and reconstructed them with the patient’s heart’s own cover. It is very risky as the valve is sitting next to the other valve with a distance of 2mm between them. A slight mistake meant damaging the other valve too,” said Dr Panda.
The doctors are sending Raut’s case study to be printed in medical journal.