A 36-year-old woman suffering from idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (IPAH)—a rare lung disorder characterized by high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries—has been treated by a city doctor who performed a transcatheter Potts shunt, a cutting-edge procedure. If not for the operation, the patient would have had to undergo a heart and lung transplant. Shikha Girdharwal, a housewife and mother of a nine-year-old, had been receiving treatment for IPAH at Kokilaben hospital for a year. But her condition gradually worsened and she had to be admitted to the hospital on August 31.

Dr Prashant Bobhate, consultant, Children’s Heart Centre, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, said, “The patient experienced increased lung pressure and her symptoms elevated significantly. She was fainting frequently and was extremely fatigued, dizzy and unable to walk even 10 metres. In this condition, an increase in the pressure in the lung artery leads to an increase in pressure on the heart too and due to which the right side of the heart starts failing. There are medications to treat this problem but in this case, the disease had progressed.” According to the doctor, a specialist in IPAH treatment, one option was to do a heart and lung transplant. “It is costly and longevity is also a little challenging because patients have to be on immunosuppressive drugs. So we planned to perform a Potts shunt procedure,” Dr Bobhate added.