Key-hole angio, safe for all ages
CHENNAI: With the city continuing to be the clinical excellence hub with newer and simpler procedures, successful patient outcomes with lesser hospital stay has become a daily affair. Recently, a 34-year-old patient with unstable angina who was referred to Apollo Main Hospital for a bypass surgery alternatively underwent a simple keyhole procedure on the Heart Team’s recommendation had the procedure completed within 20 minutes.
“The patient got medical attention at her native place, where a coronary angiogram revealed 90 per cent critical narrowing of the left main coronary artery (LMCA), the main arterial trunk supplying the majority of the heart muscle due to high cholesterol levels. After discussing the options in detail, the patient opted for a non-surgical key-hole angioplasty procedure. The procedure took just 20 minutes and the family and the patient were thrilled at the quick outcome,” said Dr Y Vijayachandra Reddy, senior consultant and interventional cardiologist, Apollo Main Hospitals, who conducted the procedure.
Dr Reddy added, “The use of advanced techniques, new generation drug-eluting stents and adjunctive imaging technology of IVUS (intravascular ultrasound) which allows a virtual view of the inside of arteries has helped make these procedures simple.
Dr S Vijay Shankar, senior consultant Cardiothoracic surgeon, who was giving surgical standby, said that this technique of angioplasty is useful to the elderly and high surgical or anaesthetic risk patients.