The Arrhythmias Unit of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Barcelona has successfully operated a baby of only 1,310 grams, the smallest patient in the world undergoing cardiac ablation, since he suffered up to 300 beats per minute inside the mother's womb when normal is 150.
An incessant tachycardia
Little Maria was detected a severe cardiac arrhythmia in the 20th week of gestation. After administering drugs to the mother so that they reached the girl through the placenta, and not giving results, they had to cause the child to be born prematurely at week 30.
The girl was still suffering from uncontrolled functioning of the heart, and seeing that the drugs did not work, the doctors decided to intervene to save her life, even in spite of being so tiny.
It was operated on January 4 and it is now when doctors Josep Brugada and Georgia Sarquella, from the Arrhythmias Unit of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, a center of reference in pediatric arrhythmias, have explained in a press conference the details of the intervention.
In Babies and more The British baby who was born with the heart out of her body, has already been dischargedA heart of two centimeters
For the surgery, the introduction of a catheter through the small femoral vein of the girl, less than a millimeter, which led to the girl's heart, a size of just two centimeters.
Once there radiofrequency was applied in the area causing the tachycardia, a technique that requires great precision in the case of a premature baby.
The girl does not need more treatment, although from now on she will have to pass periodic clinical controls until reaching adulthood.
After twenty years of experience, the doctors consider that it is cured and that the late complications are not probable, so Maria and her family returned to Zaragoza, where they are from,
The smallest in the world
The girl is the smallest baby in the world who has had a cardiac ablation.
In the year 2003, an intervention identical to that of María was carried out on a baby weighing a little more than her, 1,540 grams, which today is a 15-year-old teenager and 1.75 meters perfectly healthy.
In Babies and more A baby of only nine months lives with a half heart, thanks to a pioneering intervention
