BHUBANESWAR: Surgeons in a private hospital here have conducted a rare heart surgery and implanted a cardiac defibrillator device which would prevent sudden cardiac death.For the first time in the State, the Subcutaneous Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator (S-ICD) was implanted by the surgeons of Apollo Hospitals in a 30-year-old computer engineer who came with heart failure and ejection fraction (percentage of functioning of the heart) of 25 to 30 per cent.
While earlier only five such devices were implanted in the country - four in New Delhi and one in Kolkata, this was sixth device implanted in suitable patients prone to sudden cardiac death.
Senior Consultant Cardiologist and Director of Interventional Cardiology Dr Prasant Kumar Sahoo said the engineer was having recurrent episodes of Ventricular Tachycardia (VT), a fatal arrhythmia leading to sudden cardiac death.
"He was investigated in details with cardiac catheterisation, coronary angiogram and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan of heart besides the whole body. Since he was found with low echo, we decided to implant an ICD which is a special type of pacemaker to prevent sudden death," he added.
Dr Sahoo said so far, all ICDs have been implanted by taking wires (leads) into the heart. But now devices are available where this can be done without putting wires into the heart (not touching the heart at all) and these are S-ICD devices, he added.
The procedure was done by a team of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons and cardiac anaesthetists of Apollo Heart Institute led by Dr Sahoo. Other team members were Chief Cardio-Vascular Surgeon Dr Raghunath Mohapatra, Consultant Cardiac Anaesthesist Dr Anjan Dash and Consultant Cardiologist Dr Biswaranjan Jena.
The ICD can prevent sudden cardiac arrest in some people who are at high risk. If it detects an irregular rhythm, it uses electrical pulses or shocks to restore a normal rhythm.
Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) is one of the most common causes of death. It is rapidly on the rise among the younger population and the reasons are largely attributed to lifestyle changes.
It is estimated that more than three million people die yearly because of SCD. Though over 80 per cent patients think they don't need to go to the doctor after experiencing heart disease symptoms, the heart attack survivors are at the highest risk for SCD, Dr Sahoo warned suggesting to maintain a healthy heart lifestyle and learn critical risk markers, especially ejection fraction, which is the most important marker that predicts SCD.