The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Rare surgery performed on cardiac patient

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Rare surgery performed on cardiac patient

Special Correspondent

Patient had seven blocks in arteries

HALE AND HEARTY: Heart surgeon Prateek Bhatnagar with his patient Satyanaraya at a press conference in Hyderabad on Monday. — Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD : In a rare operation, a team of doctors, led by heart surgeon Prateek Bhatnagar, performed a multiple coronary bypass surgery using beating heart technique on a 56-year-old patient at CARE Hospital here recently.

Angiography done a week after the surgery showed that all the seven bypass grafts were working well.

Giving details of the surgery at a press conference here on Monday, Dr. Bhatnagar told reporters that the patient, Satyanarayana, a resident of the city, was a diabetic and hypertensive.

He had seven blocks -- three in the main coronary arteries and four in their branches. As a result, his heart was pumping only 40 per cent of blood and causing unstable angina.

Challenging task

Without resorting to open-heart surgery, the team adopted beating heart technique, operated upon Mr. Satyanarayana and bypassed the blocks using five arterial and two vein grafts.

Dr. Bhatnagar said the three-and-half hour operation was quite challenging.

He said misconceptions that beating heart surgery could be done on patients having only one or two blocks were totally "unfounded and ill-conceived."

Any number of bypasses could be done using the technique.

Dr. Bhatnagar, who performed close to 2,000 coronary bypass surgeries adopting the technique, said recovery of patients who underwent the procedure would be faster when compared to open-heart surgery.

Besides, there were lesser risks of wound infection, stroke and kidney damage.

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