Members from a medical team in the Hong Kong University-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) perform surgery on a newborn who had persistent truncus arteriosus and interrupted aortic arch. Courtesy of HKU-SZH
A medical team from the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) recently completed surgery on a newborn baby who had persistent truncus arteriosus and interrupted aortic arch.
The baby recovered well after the operation and was about to be discharged, according to the hospital, which also noted that the operation was the first of its kind in Shenzhen.
Persistent truncus arteriosus and interrupted aortic arch is an extremely rare and complex congenital heart disease (CHD), with an incidence of three to 20 per 1 million.
According to Ding Yiqun, deputy director of HKU-SZH’s cardiovascular medical center, persistent truncus arteriosus is a rare type of heart disease that is present at birth in which there is a single main blood vessel, rather than the normal two, carrying blood away from the heart.
Interrupted aortic arch is also a very rare heart defect in which the aorta is not completely developed. There is a gap between the ascending and descending thoracic aortas, preventing blood from flowing throughout the body.
The combination of persistent truncus arteriosus and interrupted aortic arch is a “super killer combination.” If a surgery is not carried out in a timely manner, a baby will die soon after birth, Ding said.
According to HKU-SZH, the infant was diagnosed with this severe heart disease before birth. The infant’s parents visited several doctors and were told that the disease was extremely rare and difficult to treat. They were even advised to abort the fetus several times.
After consulting with Ding’s team, the infant’s parents decided to give it a shot and kept the pregnancy going.
“Our surgical team not only needed to reconnect the ascending and descending thoracic aortas, but also had to divide the arterial trunk into the aorta and the pulmonary artery,” Ding explained.
“The operation was complex and time-consuming. Moreover, the child weighed only 3 kilograms and the area on which the surgery was performed was very small,” he added.
The operation, which lasted for five hours and 39 minutes, went perfectly, and the patient’s heart deformity was nicely corrected.