The electrophysiology team at Cliniques Saint-Luc carried out an exceptional intervention on a young 14-year-old patient suffering from a heart malformation on April 25, passing through the liver to bring catheters to her heart. This operation represents a first in Belgium in the case of a child.
The young girl suffered from a heart malformation associating dextrocardia – a heart located on the right in the thorax – with an absence of inferior vena cava and a malformation of the valves between the atria and the ventricles. More recently, she had experienced frequent episodes of tachycardia resistant to usual treatments. The operation aimed to treat this arrhythmia.
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Given the complexity of the heart defect, it was not possible to use the usual route to perform the operation. The doctors therefore decided to take an alternative route to access the patient’s heart, via the liver. “A few cases have already been described in the scientific literature in adults, but this procedure has never been carried out for this purpose in a child,” emphasize the Cliniques Saint-Luc.
The operation was carried out under general anesthesia in just two hours. Returning home the day after the procedure, the patient was able to quickly resume her usual activities.
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“This operation is quite exceptional and represented significant teamwork,” underlines the press officer of Cliniques Saint-Luc, Sylvain Bayet. “This opens up perspectives for the future of patients suffering from the same morphological malformation as this young girl.”
