A team of doctors at a city hospital performed a successful bypass on a ten-year-old boy for Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), a rare cholesterol disorder.
The patient, a resident of Mathura, was born with rare genetic disorder called Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). He came to Dr Peeyush Jain, Director, Non-Invasive Cardiology and Head-Preventive Cardiology, Fortis-Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) with chest pain and breathlessness over three days.
"Investigations revealed that he had suffered a massive myocardial infarction (heart attack) and was in a condition of heart failure. An angiography showed severe coronary artery blockages compromising blood flow to heart muscle necessitating a surgical intervention of urgent Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)," said Dr Jain.
Ramji Mehrotra, Director, Cardio-Thoracic Vascular Surgery, FEHI said, "The bypass operation at this age itself is a challenge as it mandates joining small calibre vessels to his heart arteries which are also very minute. The second challenge was imposed by very poor function of his heart."
The boy was operated on March 13 and discharged within a week.
According to Ashok Seth, Chairman-Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Familial hypercholesterolemia is a rare genetic disorder that is hereditary in nature. It is a condition where the LDL or the bad cholesterol level remains very high in the circulation. The liver is unable to remove the bad cholesterol from the blood leading to artery blockage starting at an early age resulting in heart attack.
"All children should be screened for cholesterol abnormalities at least once between ages 9 and 11 years and children >2 years age should have a fasting lipid profile if a family member (<55 y males, <65 y females) had documented cardiovascular disease or if a parent had total cholesterol level >240 mg/dL," said Viney Jetley, Associate Director, Invasive Cardiology, FEHI.
The father of the boy thanked the doctors for saving his son.
"I had lost all hope. When I saw him smiling after the surgery, I did not have adequate words to thank the doctors who granted him a new life," he said.
