A two-day-old newborn, who was diagnosed with a rare congenital tumour, has undergone a life-saving surgery for its removal at a leading facility here, hospital authorities said on Tuesday. The baby’s tumour was detected on a routine ultrasound of his mother at 20 weeks of her gestation, doctors said.
In an extremely rare case reported at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, a two-day-old newborn, recently underwent a life-saving heart surgery for removal of a “rare tumour,” the hospital group said in a statement. “The baby, whose parents are residents of Noida, was born with a rare congenital tumour called intra-pericardial teratoma (arising from the surface of the heart) which was detected while he was in his mother’s womb,” it said.
The tumour was found to be arising from the surface of his heart and had the potential of impacting its growth within the womb. Hence, after the detection, his condition was monitored regularly every week by the means of fetus echocardiogram (to assess the growth of tumour and any effects on the functioning of heart), the doctors said. To reduce the pressure on his heart and carry his mother’s pregnancy to term, an excessive amount of fluid surrounding his heart was needed to be removed once, they said.
“At birth, the baby weighed 3.2 kg, but had trouble breathing. He was immediately intubated and put on a ventilator. A CT Angio was conducted and showed a 7 cm across, lobulated giant intrapericardial tumor that was pushing the heart to the left and compressing the lung,” the statement said. Dr Rajesh Sharma, senior paediatric cardiac surgeon at the hospital, said, The baby’s condition was precarious and we planned to operate on him immediately.
Two days after his birth, we successfully removed the tumour which was larger than the heart and was found to be attached to the surface of the heart, displacing the heart to the left.” It had an attachment to the aorta and the right AV groove. Since tumour manipulation was causing a fall in the blood pressure, and due to its proximity to the right coronary artery, the removal of the tumour was accomplished by putting the baby on the heart-lung machine, on cardiopulmonary bypass. The doctors managed to remove the tumour in one piece, he said. An intra-pericardial teratoma arising from the heart is an “exceedingly rare tumour” of the fetus and the newborn. A major concern with such tumours during pregnancy is the life-threatening pressure that the tumour puts on the fetus’ heart and lungs, the hospital authorities said.
Dr Ashutosh Marwah, consultant surgeon, paediatric cardiology, at the hospital, said, “Fortunately there have been no significant deleterious effects of the tumour on the functioning of lungs or heart. Though the removal of tumour is supposed to be curative in most cases, due to the rarity of the diagnosis, the baby will need regular follow-ups with tumour marker levels and regular echocardiographic examinations in the future.” For now, the baby has shown good recovery and has been discharged and is in healthy condition, the doctors said.
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