Mahela Akhtar, 25, did not have a major health problem till she was admitted to hospital last month with a rupture in the Sinus of Valsalva, a potentially fatal congenital heart ailment.

The conventional treatment is open-heart surgery. However, thanks to a new technique, Akhtar left the hospital in two days and with only a small scar.

Sinus of Valsalva is a part of the aorta that regulates the flow of blood from the left ventricle (main pumping chamber of heart) to the body. A rupture could cause blood to leak into one of the chambers, resulting in heart failure.

“The new technique involves implant of a device made of platinum and nickel through small punctures in the groin with the help of a catheter and a delivery system,” said Biswajit Bandyopadhyay, an interventional paediatric cardiologist at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences. He performed the surgery on Akhtar and another patient recently.

“The implant, which does not react to the body, closes the rupture. There are no post-surgery complications,” added Bandyopadhyay.