3 simultaneous cardiac surgeries

Chennai, Mar 25 (UNI) For the first time in the country, a city-based hospital performed three simultaneous cardiac surgeries on a patient for major complications, according to the hospital sources.

Fifty-year-old Shanthi Prakash Bonegala from Guntur was diagnosed with large aortic aneurysm after he was suffering from breathlessness and chest pain, Dr V V Bashi of MIOT Hospitals told reporters yesterday.

He was found to have three problems in the heart - 90 per cent narrowing of the left main coronary arteries, 100 per cent occlusion of the right coronary arteries, which supplied blood to the heart, and a leak in the aortic valve.

The surgical team, headed by Dr V V Bashi, performed three bypass grafts, repaired the leak in the aortic valve and repaired the aneurysm with an artificial graft.

Mr Bashi said this was the first kind of operation done in India for a combination of three major problems in the heart and only two other cases were reported in the world.

Explaining the six-hour-long operation that took place on March 13, he said the patient was first connected to a heart lung machine by inserting two tubes in the arteries and veins in the groin before opening up the chest. The patient's blood was cooled at 16 degree C and three bypasses were performed for block in the coronary arteries.

Blood circulation to the brain, kidney, hear, lungs, liver, intestine and the whole body was stopped for an hour and during this time, the team stitched tube grafts of 20 cm length to replace the diseased aorta.

The vessels supplying blood to the brain were then stitched on to this graft and blood circulation was restarted. The aortic valve was then resuspended on to this graft to repair the leak in the valve.

After this, the patient was warmed to normal temperature and disconnected from the heart lung machine.

Dr Bashi said the patient had an uneventful post-operative recovery and would be leaving the hospital in a couple of days.

Though the operation cost Rs 4.5 lakh, the hospital charged only Rs 2.5 lakh in view of his poor socio-economic condition, he added.

UNI