CHENNAI: A new procedure, BRTO (Balloon Occlusive Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration), which is a non-surgical intervention, was performed by doctors of Lifeline Hospital recently on a 50-year-old patient last week. According to the hospital, it was the first of its kind surgery in TN.
Dr R Ravikumar, Interventional Radiologist, Lifeline hospital, who performed the surgery along with a team of doctors, said the patient was diagnosed with gastric varices due to portal hypertension secondary to liver cirrhosis.
The patient had uncontrollable bleeding and came to the hospital with a hemoglobin level of 3.8 gm per cent.
Using the BRTO procedure, the team reached the bleeding gastric varices through a small needle inserted in the groin. After reaching the problem area, they advanced a balloon occlusion catheter, placed it at the mouth of the vein and inflated it. The exact problem was then assessed and the veins blocked using sclerosant.
Dr Ravikumar said that unlike surgical interventions, the BRTO was a safe non-surgical procedure. The recovery time and the postoperative period was less, he added.