Strawberry-sized heart treated with pacemaker implant

BENGALURU: At a city hospital a four-day-old boy who was born with a cardiac anomaly was treated with a pacemaker implant. No significant structural problems were found in the heart, but his heart beat was 35-40 a minute instead of the normal 140 which is normal among newborns.

Doctors have said that this was the tiniest heart that has ever been treated for the procedure in the state of Karnataka. The baby was delivered on January 28 at a private nursing home in Bengaluru and the next day the child was shifted to Manipal Hospitals. Since the infant weighed only 1.6kg on Day 1, a small pacemaker was not available. The delivery was in the eighth month of pregnancy, as they were issues with circulation of the placental blood.

An order was placed for the smallest pacemaker available in Hong Kong and received on Day 4 — January 31 — and the procedure was immediately performed. The pacemaker weighs just 12.8g to monitor and regulate the rhythm of the strawberry-sized heart. The pacemaker batteries will run for five years, then the boy has to undergo another procedure.

Dr Devanand Shivanna, cardiothoracic surgeon, Manipal Hospitals, who had conducted the operation said that, “The pacemaker implant by itself is not new, but what made this case special was the size of the child, who weighed 1.6kg at the time of birth. As the required pacemaker was not available, it was specially procured from Hong Kong. There is a need to raise awareness on what are the correctable defects detected during the fetal echo. Not every baby with defect needs to be medically terminated as there are treatments available.”