A baby with mirror-image organ placement underwent surgery in Lviv
One-year-old Demian from Zakarpattia was born with a congenital heart defect and mirror-image organ placement. The boy required a complex surgery, which was successfully performed by doctors in Lviv.
This was reported with reference to a post by St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital.
Demyan has an unusual arrangement of internal organs. Most of them are mirror-image. According to doctors, this is extremely rare; usually, a mirror-image arrangement of organs does not affect health or well-being in any way.
“This means that his heart, spleen, and pancreas are on the right, while the liver and, say, the appendix are on the left. In other words, absolutely all organs of the chest and abdominal cavities are positioned oppositely,” the statement reads.
In his ninth month of life, doctors detected a heart murmur in Demyan. Medical professionals determined that the boy had an atrial septal defect with partial anomalous drainage of the pulmonary veins. “These vessels did not drain into his native left atrium, but into the right one, which, however, due to the mirror-image arrangement of the organs, was physically located on the left. This heart defect, combined with the baby’s anatomical peculiarities, required serious surgical intervention,” the hospital explained.
So the doctors set about treating the child and performed a minimally invasive procedure—through a small incision under the armpit, which was a low-trauma option. “During the operation, cardiac surgeons closed the large defect in the atrial septum and redirected blood flow from the pulmonary veins to the left atrium—as it should be anatomically correct. The complex procedure lasted 2 hours and was successful,” the post noted.
The day after the surgery, the patient was transferred to a regular ward, and on the fifth day, he went home. Currently, Demyan is eating well, gaining weight, and sleeping soundly.
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