35-year-old Sanjay Roy was successfully treated after he was suffering from an extremely rare heart condition where he developed a large hole inside his main arterial pipe called the “aorta” caused by a metal stent which was placed inside a vein in the liver.

This metal stent slowly migrated from the liver through the vein into the right side of the heart and then subsequently ruptured the aorta. The metallic stent was placed inside his inferior vena cava ( the main vessel to receive blood from the lower half of the body) as he had previously been diagnosed with a liver condition, ‘Budd chiari’ syndrome.

The doctors in the capital, who treated the case, Dr. Ritwick Raj Bhuyan, Director, Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute said, “The metallic stent which has been placed in his liver had migrated to his heart and ruptured the main vessel of his heart. He came to us with the complaints of uneasiness, breathlessness, and chest pain. We investigated and found that right chamber of the heart was ruptured. We operated and after 2 weeks Mr. Roy was discharged.”

As the patient had deranged liver and heart function, he will need cardiac rehabilitation for at least 3 months and should avoid alcohol, smoking and drink moderate amount of fluid, said Dr Bhuyan.

The doctor further said, “The patient was initially exhibiting severe symptoms of heart failure, deranged liver function and low platelet count. His surgery was very challenging as the metallic stent was totally buried inside his vein in the heart. His right sided heart became almost like a large football due to right sided valve failure and an excessive blood flow to the right heart.”

“The main challenges in this surgery were very high risk of heart rupture, uncontrolled bleeding and liver failure after surgery. In general, surgery of this nature have only 30% chances of survival. During surgery, his heart was stopped using a very advanced technique and the metallic stent was cut and trimmed, his aortic rupture was closed and his right sided heart valve was repaired. This whole marathon surgery took almost 9 hours with a team of 12 doctors and paramedics,” added the doctor.