Medical examinations also revealed that she had a partial atrioventricular (AV) canal defect.
World-First Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery on Situs Inversus Patient at RML Hospital
Doctors at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital have successfully performed a minimally invasive heart surgery on a 31-year-old woman from Rajasthan who has a rare congenital condition called situs inversus. In this condition, the patient’s internal organs are arranged in a mirror-image of the normal position.
The woman’s heart was located on the right side, her liver on the left, spleen on the right, and stomach on the right. Medical examinations also revealed that she had a partial atrioventricular (AV) canal defect, a congenital heart disease in which a hole in the heart allows mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.
The surgery was carried out without cutting the chest bone, through a small incision, making it the first such minimally invasive procedure reported for a patient with this combination of conditions.
Dr. Narendra Singh Jhajharia, head of the Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department at RML Hospital, said that situs inversus itself is extremely rare, and the presence of partial AV canal defect makes the case even rarer.
The operation was conducted on March 30, 2026. The patient was discharged on Friday after recovering successfully. The procedure was covered under the government’s Ayushman Bharat Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana health scheme.
