Viagra can lower the pulmonary pressure in very small children

The Viagra drug has yet again been responsible for tears of relief and happiness but it had nothing to do with impotence or sexual activity this time.

In this case Viagra was given to a one year old girl who suffers from a serious congenital heart condition in which her pulmonary veins which are supposed to transport blood from her lungs to the left side of her heart, instead transport them to the right side.  This rare condition is called total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage.

Two weeks after she had been born the girl called Ashmita had an extremely complicated operation done to change the direction of the blood flow to the correct side of her heart, but unfortunately while she recovered at the time, a few months later her pulmonary arterial veins were too narrow and again restricted the flow of blood and oxygen around her body. The cause of the narrow veins was because they had not become larger along with Ashmita’s natural growth.

Dr Balakrishnan who led the operation to save the little girl said that while the procedure had been largely successful, the pressure on her lungs was sufficient to be life threatening and that is when the Viagra came into play. Other research has shown that the use of Viagra can lower the pulmonary pressure in very small children as well as adults and that it was decided to give the impotence drug a try.

The small blue Viagra tablets were given to the girl by crushing them up and administering them at regular intervals. Dr Balakrishnan said he was surprised at the “dramatic improvement” and how the pressure in her lungs dropped straight away. Ashmita who has just turned one year old celebrated her first birthday in the Intensive Care Unit of the Malar Hospital in Madras, India but has now been sent home following a full recovery.