Doctors prevent heart failure in womb

In a rare incident, a case of heart failure in the womb was handled at a city hospital here by doctors who gave medicine to the baby through placenta of the mother to control the child's heart beat.
A resident of Sonipat in Haryana, Kamal Arora had come to the BLK super speciality hospital for routine check up when her ultrasound report revealed heart failure of the baby in womb, as a result of which baby's body had developed swelling
"The patient was immediately put on medication and we administered medicine through the placenta of the mother," said Dr Vikas Kohli, Director and HoD at BLK Children's Heart Institute.

"The challenge was to control the heart beat at the earliest as long duration of persistent fast heart beat may have resulted in heart failure. Both the mother and the baby were kept on medication for a week to bring the babies heart beat to normal," Kohli explained.
The medication is usually continued into the first year of life, allowing the baby to 'grow out' of it.
Irregular heartbeats, or heart arrhythmias, are rare in unborn babies, and is seen only in one or two in every 1,000 pregnancies. Usually, any sign of abnormality in unborn baby's heart functioning goes unnoticed, as the ultrasound scans are far apart. Without treatment the chances of survival are poor.

"Some of the babies will die in the womb, some will deliver prematurely and die because of complications of prematurity. Others die within the first few weeks of birth, unable to survive life outside the womb," added Kohli.

An abnormal heart rate in a foetus damages the development of the heart, eventually affecting its ability to pump blood effectively.
The beats in a normal foetal heart range between 120 and 160 beats per minute (bpm), babies with greater than 200 bpm are considered at risk.
Unborn babies can only be treated if the condition is spotted in antenatal checks. The only sign a woman might have that her baby has heart trouble is reduced foetal movement, or a feeling of being bloated as the baby retains fluid.

The doctors of the hospital treated another similar case last month.