Bangalore Hospital saves bus conductor with a rare heart condition

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Doctors from Narayana Health City used a unique minimally invasive procedure called Percutaneous Balloon Mitral Valvuloplasty to operate upon the 45-year-old patient, thereby giving him a new lease of life

Bangalore Hospital saves bus conductor with a rare heart condition using a unique procedure

  • Thulukkanam, a 45-year-old bus conductor from Tamil Nadu was born as a dextrocardia, a rare heart condition in which the heart is positioned on the right side of the chest instead of being on the left side.
  • Though he was leading a normal life, recently he started developing difficulty in breathing while walking.
  • On investigations, it was revealed that he was suffering from mitral stenosis, wherein the mitral valve (the valve that lets blood to flow from one chamber of the heart to the other) had become narrow and there by blocked the blood flow.
  • Though mitral stenosis is a commonly seen heart ailment, mitral stenosis in dextrocardia is extremely rare. A fatal condition, it has the potential to gradually lead to blood clot and even stroke or heart failure.

Speaking about the condition, Dr Uday Khanolkar, Senior Interventional cardiologist, Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Narayana Health City said, “Narrowing of the mitral valve in a person whose heart is positioned on the right side is an extremely rare condition with a global prevalence of 1 in 2,00,000 people. Until recently the condition was treated by performing a surgery involving valve change. In this case we performed a minimally invasive procedure.”

He added, “Further, as interventional cardiologists we are used to performing procedures on the left sided heart, so the orientation was also a challenge. However, ICE (Intra Cardiac Echocardiography guidance) played an important role in making the complex procedure easy and efficient.”

“While percutaneous balloon mitral valvuloplasty is common, performing the same through ICE is rare. ICE is a technique that enables to see the structures of the heart from inside without opening the heart” said Dr Kapil Kumawat, Senior Interventional Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist, Narayana Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Narayana Health City.

Expressing his happiness, Thulukkanam said, “I never imagined that I would recover owing to my rare condition. Today, I am fine and can lead a normal life again. I am so grateful to Dr Uday and Dr Kapil for giving me a new life.”

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