The infant was born with a congenital heart defect in the form of a common atrioventricular canal defect and abnormal subvalvular apparatus (parachute type). The patient underwent complex intracardiac repair, which failed to achieve the expected functional outcome due to the increased abnormal valve morphology. On the following postoperative days, the child developed severe heart failure and was scheduled for mechanical heart valve implantation for life indications.
The world’s smallest heart valve, Abott's Masters (St. Jude) HP 15 mm, was used, specially imported for the surgery. On the day of the surgery, the baby weighed 3.8 kg. Mitral valve replacement surgeries in patients less than 1 year old are extremely rare, and with a patient weight less than 4 kg it is safe to say that this was one of the smallest in the world.
The surgery, performed on March 31, went without complications, and the heart function was improving every day. Currently, the infant is in the Department of Cardiac and General Pediatric Surgery UCC MUW, in general good condition, breathing on its own.
The chief operator and the person in charge of the team was Michał Buczyński, MD, PhD. In the diagnostic and therapeutic process participated also: Michał Zawadzki, MD, PhD, Paulina Kopacz, Wojciech Mądry, MD, PhD, and Jacek Kuźma, MD, PhD - from the Department of Cardiac Surgery, Monika Sobieraj, Md, PhD – an anaesthesiologist, and a team of nurses and perfusionists from the operating suite of the Children's Clinical Hospital UCC MUW.
