Doctors at Fortis Noida save patient with Infective Endocarditis from paralysis by performing complex Valve Replacement Surgery

NOIDA ROHIT SHARMA

Fortis Hospital, Noida performed a complex, life-saving valve replacement surgery for a patient who suffered from acute Infective Endocarditis. The surgical team was headed by Dr Saurabh Juneja, Principal Consultant, Cardiac Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Noida. The patient, 55 year old Meena Devi, presented with low grade fever, joint and generalised swelling of her body and weakness. While being treated for these symptoms, she suffered a sudden heart failure. The patient’s lungs were flooded and the oxygen content in her body was inadequate for which she was given ventilator support in ICU.  Further investigations revealed that a heart and lung failure was the result of an unresolved infection which led to high counts of total leukocytes in blood. Echo cardiography also recorded a severe re-gurgitation in the aortic valve and that the endocardium had developed abnormal vegetation, more than one centimetre in circumference. The risk of large vegetation may lead to embolization in the body or the brain and occurrence of abscesses in the heart muscle, resulting in possible fatal consequences. This life threatening condition is called infective endocarditis. From no significant findings to a condition that required artificial ventilator support was a transition that demanded an instant decision to treat the patient surgically. An urgent Aortic valve replacement surgery was performed with the whole infected Aortic valve being excised and replaced with a new artificial heart valve.  Infective Endocarditis is a condition where the inner tissues of the heart are inflamed and infected. This is usually a result of infectious organisms that are bacterial or fungal. Consequently with formation of vegetation attached to the surface of the valve there can be an acute leakage of the valve or inadequate blood flow across the valves in the heart which can result in heart failure. With the rapid onset of infection and large vegetation, septic embolization sets in resulting in a possible stroke and fatality.