Damascus, SANA-A doctor at Damascus Hospital for Heart Diseases and Surgery was able to diagnose a very rare congenital heart defect, “a common arterial trunk with an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA)”, and because it is one of the rare cases, it was documented by the international peer-reviewed journal Science Direct.
The head of the pediatric department at the hospital and supervisor of the case, Dr. Mona Kanaan, said in a statement to SANA that the case is of a 3-year-old child, who suffers from growth failure and recurrent respiratory infections, and was previously diagnosed with pulmonary atresia with a hole between the ventricles at the age of one year, and it was decided to operate on him after gaining weight.
The doctor explained that the child visited the pediatric cardiology department at the hospital, and the aforementioned heart defect was diagnosed, which is a common arterial trunk with an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.
She added that the diagnosis was confirmed by performing a multi-slice CT scan and a cardiac catheterization that clearly showed the abnormal origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.
Dr. Kanaan pointed out that the case emphasizes the need for a thorough study of all complex cardiac lesions, not to overlook any part of the study, and to emphasize the study of the origin of the coronary arteries and the great suspicion of the presence of an abnormal origin in the event that they are not in their natural location, and to use other diagnostic methods to confirm the diagnosis “CT scan – cardiac MRI – cardiac catheterization”, noting that these complex cases require high surgical expertise due to the multiple existing deformities and expected complications after surgery, especially myocardial ischemia following re-implantation of the left coronary artery.
Noura/MHD Ibrahim
