Doctors Perform First Heart Surgery on Foetus in India

Doctors at a hospital in the southern city of Hyderabad have reportedly performed a heart surgery on a foetus in a 25-year-old woman’s womb, local media reported on Friday.

The cardiac surgeon, Nageswara Rao, told reporters in Hyderabad that in a medical feat, the surgery was the first to be carried out in India.

The doctors at Care Hospital said that they had to perform the heart surgery on the foetus to correct a serious condition that has no cure once the baby is born.

“At 25-26 weeks, the left ventricle started deteriorating, getting damaged and shrinking.

“We realised this is going to be a serious condition where the left side of the heart will be too small and not useful and it won’t be possible to perform surgery after birth,’’ Rao told the media.

He added that they decided to go for the procedure called “foetal aortal volvotomy.”

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