Delhi's RML Doctors Perform Rare Heart Surgery On Patient With 'Mirror Image' Organs

The surgery was performed on March 30, and was covered under the government's Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

04 Apr 2026, 12:29 · www.ndtv.com

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Doctors at RML Hospital performed a minimally invasive heart surgery on a 31-year-old woman.
The patient had Situs Inversus, a rare condition with mirror-image organ placement.
She also had a partial AV canal defect causing abnormal blood mixing in the heart.

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New Delhi:

In what the hospital claimed to be a global first, doctors at the RML Hospital have successfully performed a minimally invasive heart surgery on a 31-year-old woman suffering from a rare condition in which the internal organs were arranged in a mirror image of normal organ placement.

The patient from Rajasthan suffered from Situs Inversus, a congenital anomaly, and presented with a complete mirror-image reversal of her internal organs, with the heart on the right side, liver on the left, spleen on the right, and stomach to the right, etc., the hospital said.

On evaluation, she was also found to be suffering from a congenital heart ailment – partial Atrioventricular (AV) canal defect – in which a hole in the heart causes mixing of pure and impure blood.

“Situs Inversus itself is a very rare condition. As such, it does not affect organ functioning; it's just that they are misplaced. Having a partial AV canal defect with Situs Inversus makes the case rarer.

"Performing the surgery through a small cosmetic incision without cutting the chest bone made it the first in the world,” Dr Narender Singh Jhajhria, director, professor and head of the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery (CTVS) department at the RML Hospital, said.

Instead of a conventional surgery involving the cutting of the chest bone, the surgery led Jhajhria was performed through a 4 cm left cosmetic incision made below the patient's left breast.

During the surgery, the patient was put on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine to maintain blood circulation to the rest of the body, Jhajhria said.

The AV canal defect was repaired using a patch taken from her pericardium (the membrane covering the heart), using meticulously placed sutures, avoiding injury to her heart valves and conduction bundle.

The surgery was performed on March 30, and was covered under the government's Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

The patient was discharged on Friday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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