Vineeta Pandey 
 
NEW DELHI: In a breakthrough surgery, the doctors in Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC) claim to have removed a rare tumour from the heart of a 39-year-old woman using port access, i.e. minimal invasive procedure, for the first time in India.

Patient Renu Murmu, a bank official from Bokaro, was diagnosed with left atrial myxoma, a rare non-cancerous tumor, in the upper left side of the heart. The tumour was detected during a heart checkup in Bokaro when Murmu complained of breathlessness while sleeping and heaviness in her chest while lying down on her left side followed by palpitation, continuous cough and pain.

Murmu is non-diabetic, non-smoker with no family history of coronary artery disease. Dr Yugal Mishra, director, department of cardiovascular surgery, performed this rare surgery using port access in about four hours. Not only was the tumour removed from the inter-arterial septum and the tumour tissues removed, even the reconstruction was done through a small hole.

“With every heart beat, the tumor used to come in and block the valve which could have resulted in sudden death of the patient. The tumour was protruding from the mitral valve and was attached to the septum. Hence, its removal was complicated,” said Dr Mishra.

The doctors first performed an angiogram on Murmu to make sure that the arteries were normal then the surgery was conducted and the tumor was removed using port access and the septum was repaired with only 3 inches of incision. Port access allows surgeons to make major cardiac repairs through a small incision or ‘port’ between the ribs and the scar is not easily visible.

“Only 0.2-0.4 per cent of such cases are seen among the total number of cardiac patients in the world. The routine procedure is to operate the patient in the conventional way. However, it leads to lot of blood loss and post recovery complications. We, for the first time, tried port access method where not only the recovery is faster, but the scar is also small. This has helped in early recovery and minimum blood loss and Murmu she can return to normal life sooner than other surgeries,” said Dr Mishra.

Source : DNA