In this Thursday’s edition (16) of the Medical Correspondent board, of Novo Dia, the neurosurgeon Fernando Gomes talked about an unprecedented heart surgery performed in Brazil to repair heart valves in an 87-year-old woman.
The patient was born with her heart on the right side of her chest and required surgical intervention. In an interview with CNN, cardiologist Vinicius Esteves, who coordinated the procedure, explained how the operation went. “The procedure is performed in a minimally invasive way, through a small hole in the groin… everything is monitored by three-dimensional echocardiography, with general anesthesia and a multidisciplinary team accompanying”, he explained.
According to Fernando Gomes, less than 1% of the population is affected by the so-called dextrocardia – when the heart occupies the right side of the chest. The problem, however, is not the space occupied, but the changes in the organ, as in the case of valves. The device is responsible for unidirectional blood flow. “Each time there is a heart movement, the blood is pushed in only one direction.”
“If these valves have problems, you can imagine that they have difficulty ejecting the blood forward – and the blood stops – or even regurgitating, favoring a return. This causes the heart to go into a process of failure that brings a very uncomfortable clinic for the patient,” she said.
The inability of heart valves to open and close can cause cases of blood accumulation, which can cause congestive heart failure, with difficulty in perfusion of organs such as the lung, essential for breathing, in addition to compromising venous return, causing swelling and difficulty performing tasks.
“The health of the heart valves is extremely important for the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system and, mainly, for us to feel good,” he said.
Gomes also highlighted the advance in medicine for the identification of cases of dextrocardia and the performance of the surgery without the need to open the patient’s rib cage – a “complex” procedure, according to the doctor.
“All the technological evolution makes us aware of this, not only from a clinical point of view”, he concluded.
Source: CNN Brasil
