Bangalore: A team of interventional cardiologists at Manipal Heart Foundation have successfully performed a procedure called Balloon Valvuloplasty on a one-day-old boy baby with a cardiac problem.

Even before the baby was born, doctors diagnosed it with a condition called "aortic valve stenosis," wherein there is a critical narrowing of the aortic valve, when the child's mother, Anila, went for a routine ultrasound examination.

The aortic valve allows oxygen-rich blood to flow from left ventricle to the aorta, and narrowing of the valve means there is pressure on the heart and there may be heart failure.

Ms. Anila was admitted to the Manipal Hospital and doctors had prepared themselves to handle a high-risk pregnancy, hospital authorities said.

The baby was born with poor heart condition, breathing difficulty and the blood pressure could not be recorded. The baby was shifted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Manipal Hospital.

According to doctors attending to the newborn, on the first day at the NICU, the baby was put on mechanical ventilator.

He had continuous convulsions owing to the poor heart condition, which was managed medically.

On the second day, Anand Shenoy, Interventional Cardiologist, Manipal Heart Foundation, and his team conducted Balloon Valvuloplasty to widen the narrowing in the aortic valve to save the baby's life.

"In this procedure the aortic valve was opened with a balloon and we achieved excellent results. After 24 hours of the procedure, the baby's clinical condition drastically improved. Blood pressure was normal; the baby was taken off the ventilator and the heart function improved drastically. The baby was discharged after seven days in a stable condition," Dr. Shenoy said.

Both surgery and balloon procedure can be done for such cardiac conditions. Surgery was extremely risky in this case because the child was only one-day-old, did not have any recordable blood pressure and a poor heart function, he added.

Balloon procedure also carries very high risk, but this procedure was the only chance to save the child. Even in reputed international institutions, the procedure mortality is as high as 40 to 50 percent. This procedure is performed usually when the child is at least one week old. In this case, the baby was very sick due to which, the procedure was done as a life saving measure.

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