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First Time in India: MIOT Hospitals successfully performs the Hybrid Norwood’s Heart Surgery on a baby just 7 days old suffering from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome – Press Release 01 May 2009.

Mrs. Anjali (name changed) gave birth to her third baby at her home town in Kerala. Her joy was short-lived as the doctors noticed that the baby was struggling to breathe. They shifted the baby to the nearest tertiary care centre at Calicut, where the parents received a shock as soon as the doctors diagnosed the child to have ‘Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS)’ – a rare congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped. Since the city hospital at Calicut could not do much for the baby, she was referred to MIOT Hospitals on Day 5.

In view of high operative risks, most of the hospitals in India do not offer any surgical treatment in this condition. With great hope the parents brought the baby to MIOT. The team lead by Dr. Robert Coelho – Chief Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon & Director – MIOT Centre of Children’s Cardiac Care and Dr. Sivakumar – Chief Paediatric Cardiologist and Senior Consultant – MIOT Centre for Children’s Cardiac Care assessed the baby’s condition and made arrangements to conduct the ‘Hybrid Norwood Procedure’.

Without treatment, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) is fatal, but with intervention, the infant may survive. HLHS had affected the baby’s left side of the heart (i.e. the left ventricle and related valves and vessels) making it severely malformed and unproductive. The left ventricle was unable to perform its natural function of pumping oxygen-rich blood out to the rest of the body. The aorta, the main artery out of the body, was also abnormally underdeveloped with this condition. Infants with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome born abroad are offered Norwood procedure which normally is a palliative operation and is the first in a series of three open-heart surgeries.

The basic problem in the hearts with HLHS is that the blood flow to the whole body is markedly reduced due to a constricting ductus and there is a flooding of the lungs with excessive blood flows. The intention of the first stage of surgery is to regulate the excessive blood flow to the lungs and to provide adequate blood supply to the whole body. A newer procedure called the Hybrid Norwood Procedure achieves this dual aim without connecting the circulation to an artificial heart lung machine by tightening the lungs vessels with bands and widening the ductus.

On day 7, the baby underwent this newer procedure termed as ‘Hybrid Norwood Procedure – Stage I’ successfully. This procedure offers a faster recovery to these sick new born babies from their cardiac handicaps.

This newer technique of Hybrid surgery (Hybrid Norwood Procedure) is a collective work done by Cardiac Surgeons (surgery) and Interventional Cardiologists (catheter management) to offer a safe surgical result. This type of Hybrid surgery has been carried out only in very few selected centers present in USA, Canada and Germany.

MIOT Hospitals, India was the 1st in Indian subcontinent to have successfully performed this Hybrid Norwood Surgery on two children in the past 5 months.

The Hybrid Norwood Procedure offers great hope to the vast majority of infants who would probably not survive a month without interventions. The baby was discharged in a healthy condition, 10 days after operation.