Media Release

Mangaluru, Dec 21: A 21-year- old lady with chest pain, palpitations, headache and difficulty in walking after a short distance for two years was diagnosed by cardiologist, Dr Pradeep Pereira to have a rare heart condition called coarctation of the aorta.

The condition was present since birth where the main pipe aorta coming out of the heart supplying blood to the entire body was critically narrowed to 90%. She was advised to undergo repair as left uncorrected, her lifespan would be reduced, with many complications including heart failure.

She underwent a minimally invasive transluminal coarctoplasty procedure by a team of Cardiologists of Father Muller Pradeep Pereira, Prabhakar, Sayyid, Jostol and cardiothoracic surgeon Anand K T, where A tube was passed through the leg arteries and dilatation with stent placement of the narrowed aorta was done. The patient was successfully discharged after three days with great relief in her symptoms.

Without treatment, coarctation of the aorta frequently leads to complications. In babies, it may lead to heart failure or death while in adults it leads to high blood pressure, which is the most common long-term complication of coarctation of the aorta. Blood pressure usually drops after the aortic coarctation has been repaired, but may still be higher than normal.

Many such surgeries are regularly performed by the in-house panel of cardiologists of the Father Muller Medical College Hospital who take utmost care of the patients. The leadership of Fr Rudolph Ravi D’Sa in improving the OPD facilities has also seen an influx of patients. The director, Fr Richard Aloysius Coelho has been instrumental in uplifting the Father Muller Charitable Institutions to a standard apart from the rest.