Jodhpur docs perform unique op on man with 5 heart chambers

In what is said to be the first surgery of its kind in India and only the third in the world, doctors at a hospital in Jodhpur have treated a man suffering from a rare congenital heart condition - having five atrial chambers instead of four.

Pali Devaram (42), who had been suffering from breathlessness and continuous coughing and heart pain, was diagnosed with the rare heart defect termed 'Cortriatrium with Mitral Regurgitation' after a medical check up at the Medipulse Hospital in the Rajasthan city.

"On diagnosis, we found him to be suffering from a rare congenital disease ... we carried out some more tests in consultation with a cardiothoracic surgeon and found him to have five chambers in his heart instead of four," the private hospital's cardiologist Alok Madan said.

Dr Madan said cortriatrium is a defect where an additional membrane or a septum creates a fifth chamber in the heart.

After the final diagnosis, a team of doctors carried out a nearly four-hour surgery on Devaram on Wednesday.

"We cut the membrane, which had created the wall above fourth valve thereby forming a fifth chamber, and made it a normal four-chambered heart," cardiothoracic surgeon Sanjeev Suresh Waidand said.

Now, the patient would be able to lead a normal, healthy life, Dr Waidand added.

Claiming it to be the first-of-its-kind surgery in India and only the third in the world, the hospital's director Navneet Agarwal said, "The first two surgeries of such type have been carried out in China and Germany."

He said that the age of the patient and the severe mitral regurgitation made this surgery unique and rare, and cost the patient around Rs1.25 lakh.

One of the patient's relatives said they had visited many doctors and hospitals across the country, but none was able to diagnose the disease.

"In last two months, Pali's problems of breathlessness, constant coughing and heart pain had aggravated," he said.

But hopefully, the Jodhpur doctors have done the trick.