HIV patient’s heart surgery successfully conducted

Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Uoc, head of the hospital’s
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department, said the 42-year-old patient
was hospitalised on May 4.

The woman was infected with HIV virus in 2005 and began
using antiretroviral drugs in 2015, he added.

Doctors also diagnosed that she suffered from type-A aortic
aneurysm, aortic insufficiency, mitral incompetence and Marfan syndrome.

Uoc said Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects the
body’s connective tissue, with 0.5 percent of the population suffering from
this disease.

Patients with Marfan syndrome showed pathological symptoms
related to the eyes and the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.
Cardiovascular damage is generally associated with aortic aneurysms and mitral
incompetence, he said.

Type-A aortic aneurysm is serious life-threatening disease, with
3-4 patients per 100,000 people contracting the disease every year, he said.

If not provided proper treatment, only some 10 percent of
patients with the disease can live more than one year, he said.

The surgery was conducted on May 9 by Uoc and Phung Duy Hong Son
from the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department and eight other
doctors.

The heart surgery was believed to be complicated because the
patient’s immune system was depleted due to the HIV infection, he said.

Additionally, chances of the patient contracting an infection
were high, while the possibility of doctors being exposed to the HIV virus was
also high, he added.

The patient, meanwhile, is still recovering. She is expected to
leave hospital next week.-VNA