Beating Heart Surgery Performed On Patient With 7 pc Heart Pumping Rate

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

In a rare feat, cardiovascular surgeon Dr Omi Jaiswal from Lilavati Hospital performed beating heart surgery on 39-year-old Shankar Narayan, a patient with abnormally low heart pumping rate of seven per cent, besides an enlarged heart almost four times the normal size. Four blockages were removed during the four-hour-long heart surgery, which cost Rs 4 lakh.

Narayan’s visits to the doctor began in 2004, when he first complained of breathlessness. In September this year, when Narayan suffered breathing problem, he was rushed to a local hospital where tests revealed an enlarged heart. Jaiswal, who has 1000 beating heart surgeries under his belt, gave Narayan hope. He opted to operate without stopping the heart, as against a conventional bypass. “There is a lesser blood loss and faster recovery in a beating heart surgery,” he added.

The procedure was risky as a normal beating heart surgery carried one per cent risk, but a low heart function meant that there was about 10 per cent risk of mortality. Narayan was admitted to the hospital’s ICU a day before the surgery and put on an Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) to improve the heart’s circulation.

Doctors in the city said the surgery was indeed a rare achievement. “Patients with an EF below 15 who have weak vessels and poor muscles are generally sent for a transplant,” said Dr Shanteesh Kaushik, Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai.

Dr A M Patwardhan, Head of KEM’s Cardiology Department, said, “Though 40 per cent of our surgeries are done by the beating heart method, most doctors would hesitate to take a patient with such low heart function,” he added.