• Rare heart surgery on 6-month-old gets medical journal entry honour
    Times of India | 17 July 2025
  • Kolkata: The case of a rare and complex heart surgery on a six-month-old girl in a Kolkata hospital was published by the World Journal of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery due to the rarity of the procedure on such a young child. Conducted a few months ago, doctors kept following the case up till they were satisfied with the recovery for presenting the case to the international journal.

    According to the parents, the baby struggled to breathe, did not feed properly, and was always tired. She was not gaining weight either. They brought her to BM Birla Heart Hospital in Kolkata, where doctors found the infant suffering from left main coronary artery stenosis, a rare congenital heart defect. In this condition, the main artery that supplies blood to the heart is dangerously narrow, which can lead to heart failure if not treated properly. Investigation reports revealed that her heart was working at only 20% capacity, and she needed urgent surgery.

    Manoj Kumar Daga, senior consultant (cardiothoracic and vascular surgery) at BM Birla Hospital, and his team decided to perform a rare heart bypass surgery known as Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG). Unlike most bypass surgeries, this was done without putting the baby on a heart-lung machine, which made it even more challenging.

    "Performing such surgery on a baby without stopping the heart is rare anywhere in the world. The congenital heart condition of the child itself is rare," said Daga.

    Despite the challenges, the procedure went smoothly. During multiple follow-ups, doctors found significant improvement in the baby's heart function. During the latest check-up, her heart was pumping with 55% efficiency, which is close to normal. It is expected to improve further. "We are happy that the child is doing well. She will grow up like any other child. We will still be following up on her periodically," said Daga.

    "To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of off-pump CABG performed in an infant with congenital LM coronary artery stenosis. The success of this technique highlights off-pump CABG as a feasible, less invasive option for revascularisation in select cases of paediatric coronary artery disease," concluded the case report in the journal co-authored by doctors Daga, Nitish Kumar, Subhendu Mandal, Gaur Hari Das, Pravir Kumar Das, Anurag Agarwal, and Madhurima Ghosh.

    A CTVS professor at a state-run medical college in Kolkata said that the CABG procedure in a child as young as six months old was rare and challenging.
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