Chennai, Sep 25 : In a rare and complex surgery, a 60-year-old woman
with rheumatic heart diseases, underwent a cardiac valve replacement for the
fifth time at the SIMS hospital in the city
The Cardiac Surgery team headed by Dr V.V. Bashi, Director and Senior Consultant,
Institute of Cardiac & Aortic Disorders (ICAD) performed this extremely challenging
surgery of opening the heart for the fifth time and replacing the degenerated
bio-prosthetic (tissue) valve of the sexagenarian woman, adding more healthy years
to her life.
Talking to reporters here today on this first of its kind rare and complex surgery
performed in Tamil Nadu, Dr Bashi said with continued advances in heart surgeries,
now more and more re-operative cardiac surgeries were being performed to improve
life expectancy of the cardiac patients.
“However, a fifth-time valve replacement of the heart remains a rare and extremely
risky surgery in my 40-year career”, he said, adding, this requires extensive
experience and precision, as it is an extremely complicated procedure carrying
risk of life and cardiac failure.
Since the patient has already undergone four heart surgeries in the past, the
internal scar tissues between the structure of the chest makes it quite challenging
to re-enter the chest and perform the surgery without damaging parts of the heart
like cardiac chambers, coronary arteries, aorta etc.
Further removing the existing tissue valve from the heart and replacing with a
fresh valve without injuring the vital structures needs extensive planning and
meticulous execution.
Having safely and successfully performed this kind of a surgery, it is truly
gratifying to say the least, Dr Bashi said.
Dr Mohammed Idhrees, Consultant Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon said the
woman, who was suffering from rheumatic heart disease, underwent mitral valve
repair twice in the early 90’s. She underwent third time redo surgery in 2008 during
which a mechanical valve was implanted. Unfortunately, within a year in 2009 her
mechanical valve had a malfunction as she did not strictly follow the medication
protocol.
She underwent fourth redo mitral valve surgery, where her mechanical valve was
replaced with tissue valve, giving her a new lease of life for 12 more years.
However, 12 years later (in 2021) her tissue valve has degenerated, requiring
replacement. “Now we had to perform an open-heart surgery for the fifth time
to remove it and replace it with a new bio tissue valve, Dr Idhrees said.”
The seven hour long surgery proved to be a success and on a post-surgery review
the tests conducted upon her showed excellent functioning of her heart and she
was doing well and going with her normal activities, Dr Bashi said.(UNI)