GUWAHATI: A complicated and rare bicuspid aortic valve surgery on a 41-year old woman of the state was successfully carried out recently at GNRC Hospitals here, which is the first tertiary care super specialty hospital of the northeast.
Speaking about the procedure, senior cardiac and vascular surgeon Dr. Rajnish Duara who led the surgery said, “There are only a few heart care centres in India which are successfully handling such surgeries. With this success, GNRC has become able to include its name in the elite list. He said, “Bicuspid aortic valve is a congenital defect of the aortic valve. Normally, there are three leaflets in the aortic valve, but in this disease there are two. This results in narrowing of the valve orifice leading to severe symptoms. This is different from rheumatic heart disease. which affects the Indian population. “This disease sometimes gets complicated with bicuspid aortopathy, as in this case, wherein the aorta which is a large tube-like structure carrying the blood to the whole body becomes enlarged and can even rupture or tear within, which is called dissection. In her case, the aorta swelled three times the normal size with signs of impending rupture. “We replaced the valve as well as the aneurysmal enlarged aorta with an artificial tube graft. She had a quick recovery and was discharged by day 6 of surgery. She is recovering well.”
