KARACHI, Sept 21: Two newborn babies recently underwent successful life-saving open heart surgeries in a Karachi hospital. These operations – the first of their kind in the city -- were performed by a Pakistani team of doctors.

Both babies have recovered well; one of them has already been discharged while the other will be released from hospital in a day or so.

Three-week-old Abdul Khaliq Moosani and 11-day-old Aman Humayun were reported with Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), a congenital heart defect at the Aga Khan University and Hospital (AKUH) in August.

Initially, both of them underwent balloon arterial septostomy, a perquisite for the arterial switch operation, which was performed later.

“Until now many parents, especially of children with this particular congenital heart disease, were forced to travel outside Pakistan for corrective surgery. But now, all types of congenital paediatric cardiac surgeries can be (performed) in the city,” said Dr Muneer Amanullah, congenital and paediatric cardiac surgeon and assistant professor who headed the five-member team that included Dr Mehnaz Atiq, Dr Mohammad Hameed, Dr Mansoor Khan and Dr Anwar-ul-Haq.

Earlier, he said, infant and neonatal open heart surgeries had been performed at the Lahore Children’s Hospital and the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC), Rawalpindi. The reason for having such few surgeries was a lack of expertise as the number of trained paediatric cardiac surgeons in Pakistan was limited.

“Each year, 120,000 children are born with congenital heart disease in Pakistan. Almost 90 per cent of these children either die or are diagnosed so late that even surgery is ineffectual,” Dr Muneer said, adding that TGA comprised 10 per cent of the congenital heart disease cases and had a very high mortality rate, within a month of the baby’s birth.

The reasons of having TGA were still unknown and the condition could affect anybody. However, it was comparatively common in boys.

Explaining TGA, commonly known as ‘blue baby syndrome,’ Dr Muneer said this was an abnormal development of the foetal heart during the first eight weeks of pregnancy in which the main arteries came from the wrong side of the heart.

As a result the blue blood, which had not taken up oxygen, was pumped round the body while the oxygenated blood went back into the lungs.

“The symptoms appear very early in life, usually in the first few days. The baby is blue and breathless and unable to feed. Immediate medical intervention is necessary as the birth defect can endanger life.

‘‘The surgery has no adverse effect on the child’s normal growth and he or she doesn’t require any further surgical procedures or special precaution later in life.

‘‘After initial regular check-ups, follow-ups are needed once a year,” he observed, while stressing the need for educating parents as well as general paediatricians about TGA.