Apollo performs rare heart surgery on 800 kids

The company has screened 120,000 children, and found 800-900 of them required Fontan repair to become normal

Healthcare services provider Apollo Hospitals today said it had performed a rare heart surgery among 800 kids in the country in the last four years. A complex congenital heart condition, where a section of ventricle is dysfunctional, it has a high incidence of death and is mostly seen among kids up to age 10 years.

As part of its congenital heart disease screening pan-India, Apollo said it had screened 120,000 children, and found 800-900 of them required Fontan repair to become normal.

"Of the about 50,000 children born with congenital heart disease in India each year, around 5,000 are born with single ventricle defects, which is a state of having very large holes in the heart and one of the lower chambers of the ventricle is often rudimentary. Such children need multiple operations called Fontan repair" Apollo said in a statement.