Remoulding heart may aid bypass surgery

Washington, Jan 30: Cardiac surgeons at John Hopkins Medical Institutions have revealed that patients undergoing bypass surgery to boost blood supply to the heart and resisting repeat heart attacks may do better if their surgeons remould the heart to a near normal size.

They found that by combining so-called coronary artery bypass grafting, known as CABG, with surgical ventricular restoration, or SVR, in patients with advanced heart failure reduced the likelihood of heart problems to 24 percent from 55 percent in those undergoing CABG alone. "Cardiologists and cardiac surgeons with patients about to undergo coronary bypass surgery should clearly be considering ventricular restoration," said John Conte, M.D, lead researcher of the study.

"For those who qualify for the dual procedure, the trend is clearly toward living longer, with fewer hospitalizations and improved quality of life," he added.

The team also found that combined procedure in patients with moderate heart failure likely had increased odds of delaying or putting off the need for a heart transplant.

They compared the group of 62 had the dual procedure with another group of 58 with CABG only operated between June 2002 and December 2005 and subsequently monitored by phone and regular check-ups.

The findings revealed that heart function progressed for 80 percent of patients who had the combination procedure and for 57 percent who had the single procedure.

"Surgical ventricular restoration can be performed with minimal training and by any cardiac surgeon, who has performed nearly 150 of the dual procedures since 2000, " said Conte.

Remodelling the heart can restore the heart to its normal, elliptical shape, lowering the pressure build-up inside the heart cavity, reducing the amount of oxygen and energy needed by the muscle to keep pumping, and allowing the heart to work normally," he added.

The study was presented at the 44th annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in Fort Lauderdale.

ANI