Jaipur: Open heart surgery through minimal invasion

Jaipur, Apr 13: A private hospital here has claimed to have achieved a technical breakthrough in performing open heart surgeries through two to three inches incisions on the side of chest wall instead of the conventional procedure.

This procedure involves a 10 to 12 inch incision in the middle of the chest as it is important to connect the patient to a heart lung machine to take over the heart's function while the surgeon operates on the heart.

A team of doctors led by Dr Vikram Goyal and Dr Alok Mathur of Tongia Heart and General Hospital claimed to have performed eight such operations involving valve replacement and closure of holes in the heart for the first time in Rajasthan.

Dr Mathur here yesterday said such operations are being performed at very few places in India and that too on experimental basis only.

The cost of the operation is around Rs 1.27 lakh at present, said Dr Mathur.

In the new minimally invasive technique, the heart lung machine is connected via small punctures in the groin with a techique called femoro-femoral bypass. This allows the surgeon to perform the operation through a small incision on the side of the chest.

This technique is useful for young patients especially female patients who are cosmetically conscious. The scar is very small and practically invisible beneath the breast. This eliminates the stigma of the conventional scar in the centre of the chest.

UNI