Two-year-old undergoes surgery without opening of heart

Tang Tang, a girl in East China's Jiangsu province, has become the world's first child to be treated of heart defect without open heart surgery, reported Shanghai-based thepaper.cn on Thursday.

Four months ago, Tang Tang was diagnosed with ventricular septal defect in Nanjing Children's Hospital. A common congenital heart disease, it is a hole in the wall that divides the left and right ventriculars of the heart.

Given the high risk of an open heart surgery, doctor of the hospital suggested a minimally invasive one.

The operation was conducted on May 5. With the help of ultrasound, a closure device was delivered over a sheath via a needle puncture on the girl's chest to close the hole in the heart.

It is the first time that this approach was employed for a child as the primary surgery, said Mo Xuming, director of the cardiothoracic surgery division of Nanjing Children's Hospital. Previously, this approach, which leaves no scar on the skin of patient, was only used in the repair after a heart surgery.

According to the hospital, Tang Tang is recovering well.