When this 37-year-old man was hospitalised due to multiple episodes of palpitations, in which the heart beats at an abnormal pace, it was thought to be a simple case, one that can be resolved with medication or some other simple treatment.
However, further tests at Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH) here revealed that the patient had his heart on the right side instead of the left.
Similarly, the positions of several other organs including the liver were also found to be reversed.
According to M. Lawrance Jesuraj, an electro-physiologist (a specialist in treating heart rhythm-related diseases), the patient had ‘ dextrocardia with situs inversus totalis .’ It was a congenital condition in which the major visceral organs were not in their normal positions. This was found only in one person per 10,000.
He said that the patient had an electrical conduction disease in his heart, which resulted in an extra electrical pathway. It was extremely uncommon for a person to have a combination of ‘dextrocardia with situs inversus totalis’ and the electrical conduction disease.
A team of doctors operated on him, which lasted over four hours, correcting the extra electrical system in the heart using radiofrequency energy. The patient was discharged after two days, Dr. Lawrance added.
Published - September 22, 2014 10:45 am IST
