Hanoi (VNA) - Doctorsfrom the Vietnam-Germany Hospital have successfully conducted an eight-hourheart surgery on a female patient with HIV virus.

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

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

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

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

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

Type-A aortic aneurysm is serious life-threatening disease, with3-4 patients per 100,000 people contracting the disease every year, he said.

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

The surgery was conducted on May 9 by Uoc and Phung Duy Hong Sonfrom the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department and eight otherdoctors.

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

Additionally, chances of the patient contracting an infectionwere high, while the possibility of doctors being exposed to the HIV virus wasalso high, he added.

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