Delhi hospital performs 1st keyhole chest surgery on Covid patient

New Delhi, Jan 5 : In a first, a 55-year-old Covid-19 patient successfully went through a keyhole chest surgery, which was performed for the first time in the country, at Max Super Speciality Hospital in South Delhi, the hospital said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sanjay Batra developed pneumothorax, a condition of collapsed lung, caused by the presence of air in the chest cavity (thoracic cavity).
The lung was trapped because of the formation of an inelastic peel over the lung surface, after recovering from the infection. This peel was not allowing the lungs to expand despite insertion of tubes in his chest cavity.
According to the hospital, the patient was so weak that it was impossible to go ahead with an open surgery.
“This is the first time ever a keyhole surgery of the chest for a collapsed lung was performed in India on a patient affected from Covid-19 infection,” said lead surgeon Shaiwal Khandelwal, Senior Consultant, at the Max Super Speciality Hospital.
The patient contracted Covid-19 in September and tested negative the following month.