‘Such cases in the U.S. were normally put through a bypass surgery’
Interventional Cardiologist at G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital in Coimbatore Rajpal K. Abhaichand and his team on Thursday demonstrated through videoconferencing a tough angioplasty to a gathering of heart specialists at Orlando in the U.S.
Dr. Abhaichand said two stents were placed in the left main artery in a 62-year-old man’s heart. What made the procedure complex was that two stents had to be placed simultaneously at a branching point of the artery, involving two regions. Because of this, blood supply to the entire heart had to be stopped for 30 to 40 seconds. If stenting is done in one region, the supply is stopped only to that location and the rest of the heart gets blood.
As the man had poor heart function, the angioplasty was offered as a safer alternative to coronary artery bypass graft, an open heart procedure. In this case, the cardiologist took the trans-radial route of passing the catheter through the blood vessel from the wrist in the right hand to the left main artery in the heart. Dr. Abhaichand has specialised in the trans-radial approach, advocating it over the relatively conventional method of passing the stent to the heart from the thigh.
The cardiologist explained that the puncture in the blood vessel can be closed quickly by pressing the spot against the bone in the wrist. This was not possible in the case of the thigh, especially in bulky patients because finding a supportive bone to press against would be difficult. The puncture could still be open and leaking blood if it had not been closed.
As for the event on Thursday, the procedure was beamed to interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, radiologists and also nurses and technicians participating in the C 3 Complex Cardiovascular Catheter Therapeutics Summit at Orlando.
Dr. Abhaichand said that this was the first time that Coimbatore region was invited to demonstrate (over video conference) its expertise in this area to a major conference gathering in the U.S.
According to the doctor, this patient made an interesting case study at the Orlando conference because such cases in the U.S. were normally put through a bypass surgery.
Dr. Abhaichand answered questions from heart specialists taking part in the conference, clarifying their doubts on various aspects of the trans-radial approach and the complexities of double stenting.
Keywords: Hospital, G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, angioplasty, video conference, cardiologist
Fascinating! What's missing? We need you to explain the details of the complex procedure of placing the dual stents at the crossroads of the artery? Also, is this procedure on UTube?
Bravo Dr.Abhaichand for doing the country proud by your successfully carrying out a tough angioplasty and demonstrating to the leading experts in Orlando through video conferencing and to the rest of the world that India too is far advanced in medical technology as well besides other areas. You have made the world sit up and take notice of Indian expertise in the medical field.More power to you and your colleagues who ably assisted you.God Bless you all.
Prevention of emergence of Coronary Artery Disease risk factors doesn't cost anything. Braunwald predicts cardiologists' role will have changed dramatically to prevention of cardiac disease. New England Journal of Medicine. 225th Anniversary.
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