CHENNAI: A fifty-year-old woman from Puducherry became the first patient to be treated for a cyst, a lump, inside the pericardium, the double-layered sac around the heart. The milestone was achieved recently at SRM Global Hospitals.

The medical team at the hospital led by Dr Sujith Velayudhan Indira, Senior Consultant in Cardiothoracic Surgery, along with Dr Sreenath, Cardiac Anaesthetist, Dr B Nembian Raja Rajan, Assistant Consultant in Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Dr Sindhu V, Consultant in Pulmonology successfully performed a keyhole surgery.

A giant mass -- measuring around 8X8X5 cm, occupying the whole of the pericardial cavity, avoiding the need for intensive procedures that usually involve stopping the heart and lung functions was removed during the surgery.

In his remarks about the surgery, Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President of SRM Group of Companies said that cysts within the pericardial cavity are extremely uncommon, with only a handful of cases documented globally in medical literature.