An eight-year-old girl has become the "youngest and smallest child in the country" to have undergone non-surgical pulmonary valve implantation, in a government hospital. The complex advanced intervention was performed on October 28 at Army Hospital (Research & Referral).
“The girl, weighing a mere 28 kg, is the youngest and smallest child in the country to have undergone this non-surgical valve implantation, particularly in the government sector,” army officials said in a statement.
The Army Hospital (R&R) team has so far performed 13 cases of pulmonary valve implantation in the last one year, which is the highest among the two government institutes in the country that have one such cases, officials added.
Till this procedure (transcatheter implantation of cardiac (pulmonary) valve) was introduced in the AFMS (Armed Forces Medical Services) by the team at Army Hospital (R&R) on October 7, 2022, the cardiac (pulmonary) valve used to be replaced through an open heart by-pass surgery, which is not only extremely painful and cumbersome but also carries significant risk of morbidity and mortality as well as prolonged hospital stay, they explained.
With this novel non-surgical procedure, a patient is discharged within two-three days post-intervention, without any scar on the body.
The introduction of this path-breaking highly specialised non-surgical intervention in the armed forces and government sector of the country is " game-changer" and has opened up fresh avenues for many such children requiring valve replacement, with significantly improved quality of life, the defence officials said.
It is a "quantum leap" towards providing advanced cardiac care in children.
It ushers a new era not only for the AFMS but also for other government hospitals of the country, taking them to a new higher platform, they said in the statement.