CHENNAI: A 42-year-old woman with a total block in the coronary artery underwent open heart surgery at the cath lab after suffering a heart attack during an angioplasty. The woman was admitted to the Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre on October 10, a day after she got chest pain. A coronary angiogram revealed a total block. Just before the angioplasty, she became unconscious.
“This is a rare complication of an acute heart attack, where damaged part of the heart muscle ruptures and blood leaks into the cardiac covering (pericardial tamponade) and compresses the heart which prevents its normal functioning,” a release said.
A team of doctors including interventional cardiologists Dr S Ramesh and Dr S Nagendra Boopathy and anaesthetists Dr Rajesh and Dr Kamalakannan placed a tube into the covering of the heart and the blood was removed and the same blood was given to the patient.
Dr T Periyasamy, HoD cardiothoracic surgery, did an open heart surgery in cath lab itself and the rupture was closed and a graft was placed. For the next 24 hours, the patient was under intensive care. Five days after surgery she was discharged.