The Hindu : Maran operated upon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 26, 2002

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Maran operated upon

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI SEPT. 25. A team of cardiac specialists conducted a marathon surgery to replace the defective heart-valve of the Union Industries and Commerce Minister, Murasoli Maran. The surgery lasted over six hours and the Minister's "vital parameters are stable''.

"In view of the severity of the disease, he has to be monitored closely for the next 72 hours,'' said the Apollo Hospitals Medical Superintendent, Radha Rajagopalan.

P.Venugopal, who had operated on Mr. Maran earlier and Talwar, cardiologist of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, reviewed Mr. Maran's condition and agreed that he needed a high-risk replacement of the mitral valve.

The Chairman of the Apollo Hospitals, Pratap. C. Reddy, said the hospital concluded that the Minister "definitely'' needed emergency surgery.

Mr. Maran was admitted to the hospital on September 23 with high fever. He had earlier undergone replacement of the mitral valve at the AIIMS, New Delhi, on July 22. Before this, the Minister had an underlying hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy for which ventricular septal ablation was done in November 2000. A dual chamber pace maker was also implanted then to control his cardiac rhythm.

After his mitral valve replacement at the AIIMS, Mr. Maran remained well except for low-grade fever off and on.

Cardiac specialists performed a trans-thoracic echocardiography on September 23. This showed vegetations under the mitral prothesis. The trans-oesophageal echo-cardiography done the next day found additional vegetations above the prosthesis. One of these was moving in and out of the prosthesis, producing partial obstruction of the valve.

Three blood cultures were carried out, which confirmed the growth of fungus (Candida Albicans). There was an "active fungal infection'' of the artificial mitral prosthesis with blood stream infection. The Apollo Hospital had started anti-fungal treatment, before the surgery.

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Union Health Minister, Shatrugnan Sinha, enquired about his health condition over telephone and wished him speedy recovery, a DMK press release said.

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