Bhubaneswar, Dec 7: Cardiologists at the SUM Ultimate Medicare here conducted pediatric cardiac catheter intervention successfully in a five-month-old baby boy recently.

When the baby suffering from shortness of breath was brought to the hospital for treatment, it was found that she was having a heart anomaly from birth known as Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA).

Dr. Dibya Ranjan Behera, Associate Professor of Cardiology at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, who attended to the baby, said PDA was a connecting tube linking aorta with the pulmonary artery, the body’s major blood pipes. Due to pressure differences, blood often flows from aorta to the pulmonary artery leading to excess blood flooding the lungs, he said.

This results in shortness in breath and sometimes leads to heart failure in babies, Dr. Behera said adding if it was not closed in time, it could lead to pulmonary hypertension which is not treatable at times.

Early treatment was the key to avoid such harmful situations and depending on the size of PDA and other factors, either surgery or catheter intervention by device closure of the duct was required, he said.

Dr. Behera said the baby underwent successful PDA device closure by a cardiac team led by him. Dr. J. Parida, Cardiac Anesthesist and Dr. Bichitrananda Rout, Consultant Neonatologist, assisted in the procedure.

The baby, who was discharged two days after the procedure, was doing well.

“This definitely opens a ray of hope for such children to be treated in our state,” Dr. Behera said.