Mangaluru: A team of doctors led by Dr. Yusuf Kumble of ‘Indiana Hospital’ has given a fresh lease of life to a 60-year-old person Raghavan from Kerala with a rarest heart valve replacement (valve in the valve) for the first time in Karnataka.
Team leader and Managing Director of Indiana Hospital Dr. Yusuf Kumble, informing the reporters about the procedure, at the hospital on Wednesday, February 20 said, “With the success of this procedure, we are proud that Indiana Hospital has occupied a top spot on India’s healthcare map. This is another feather in the cap of Mangaluru”, he added.
What is the case?
The patient Raghavan had undergone an open heart surgery and mitral valve replacement in Kerala about 12 years ago. His artificial valve degenerated and slowly became defunct during the last one year. He consulted many doctors at different hospitals for treatment of heart failure and was advised to redo open heart surgery in order to change the valve. He was suffering not only from heart failure but kidney failure too due to which redoing open heart surgery would be highly risky. Hence, doctors were not willing to perform the surgery on him. He had lost all hope. He was admitted to Indiana Hospital ICU and during the two weeks, his heart condition worsened and he was on the ventilator.
Raghavan was offered a new modality of treatment of replacing the mitral valve with another artificial valve without open heart surgery on February 14. In this method, a large hose like pipe is introduced through the leg vein which enters the right heart under fluoroscopic guidance. Then this enters the left heart after making a small hole in the inter-atrial wall of the heart. Through this wire, a folded balloon mounted valve is carried to the left heart and positioned across the mitral valve. The valve is then implanted under fluoroscopic guidance.
The new treatment was done without opening the heart. Unlike angioplasty and stent which is only 3-4 mm in diameter, a heart valve is 23-28 mm in diameter. This is quite difficult to implant inside the heart without open heart surgery. This mode of treatment was introduced about five years ago in the west and is gradually becoming popular. In India, this is the 15th valve implant and the first percutaneous valve implant in the southern states of Karnataka and Kerala. As the patient Raghavan is from a poor financial background, the whole treatment was done at a cost of Rs 7 Lakh. Though the mitral valve’s cost is up to Rs 24 Lakh, we get it for the patient at a cost of Rs 4 Lakh only, Yusuf Kumble informed.
The doctors’ team included Dr. Prashanth Vaijayanth and Dr. Gopal Murugan from Chennai, Dr. Abdul Mansoor and Dr. Jenu James. As this is a high risk and first of its kind attempt, an efficient cardiac surgery team led by Dr. Prashanth Vaijayanth was ready for backup in case of an emergency.
Raghavan expressed that the hospital and the doctors had given a new life to him. ” I am thankful to the whole team”, he said with immense pleasure.
