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 in Delhi today said the hospital authorities on Tuesday. The doctors said that on a routine ultrasound of his mother at 20 weeks of her gestation the baby’s tumour was detected.
In an extremely rare case reported at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, a two-day-old newborn recently undergone life-saving heart surgery for removal of a “rare tumour.”
It said, “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.”
According to the doctors, the tumour was found to be growing from the surface of his heart and had the potential of affecting its growth within the womb. Hence, after the detection, his condition was regularly observed every week by the means of fetus echocardiogram (to assess the growth of tumour and any effects on the functioning of heart), said the doctors.
They said, an excessive amount of fluid surrounding his heart was needed to be removed once in order to reduce the pressure on his heart and carry his mother’s pregnancy to term. The statement 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.”
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.”
The removal of the tumour was accomplished by putting the baby on the heart-lung machine, on cardiopulmonary bypass and 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.
He said, the doctors managed to remove the tumour in one piece. An intra-pericardial teratoma arising from the heart is an “exceedingly rare tumour” of the fetus and the newborn. A major concern with tumours like these during pregnancy is the life-threatening pressure that the tumour puts on the fetus’ heart and lungs, stated the hospital authorities.
“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,” said Dr Ashutosh Marwah, consultant surgeon, paediatric cardiology, at the hospital.
The doctor added, for now, the baby has shown good recovery and has been discharged and is in healthy condition.”
