A 10-year-old boy has become the youngest Indian to successfully undergo a bypass surgery, a private hospital in New Delhi has claimed. Hailing from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, the boy was suffering from Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) — a very rare cholesterol disorder. It is a highly unusual case where there is no effective treatment other than surgery because it is genetic.
The surgery was performed at under the supervision of Dr Ramji Mehrotra, director, cardio-thoracic vascular surgery at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI). The boy was admitted to the hospital after he complained of chest pain and breathlessness. Medical tests revealed that he had suffered a massive myocardial infarction (heart attack) and was in the condition of heart failure. Mehrotra conducted the Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) using total arterial grafts and saved the boy.
Familial hypercholesterolemia is a rare genetic disorder that is passed down through families. It is a condition where the LDL or the bad cholesterol level remains very high and the liver is unable to remove the bad cholesterol from the blood, leading to artery blockage at an early age resulting in heart attack.
“The bypass operation at this age is a challenge as it mandates joining small caliber vessels to his heart arteries which are also very minute. The patient’s heart functioning was very poor and we had to select the grafts, which will last for long period of time. The surgery was smooth and uneventful and the boy was discharged within one week,” said Mehrotra.
The boy has already been discharged from the hospital and is doing fine, the doctors said.