COMBATING EXTENSIVE HEART ATTACK!
Indians are genetically prone to develop heart attacks about 10 years earlier than their western counterparts. Further, many studies have pitched the incidence of heart attacks among youngsters at 12-16% in India.
Dr. D Janardhana Reddy, Chief Cardiovascular Surgeon, Apollo Speciality Hospital, Vanagaram, tells us more about the surgery performed on patients with extensive heart attack.
What happens to the heart muscle during a heart attack?
During a heart attack, a segment of the heart muscle is dead or infarcted and cannot regenerate. The dead muscle becomes thinner and thinner and this segment becomes a scar tissue. As the rest of the normal heart muscle contracts, the scarred segment of the heart becomes a ventricular aneurysm.
What is ventricular aneurysm?
When a patient has a heart attack, the patient develops impairment of the segments of the involved muscles called dyskinesia. When the segments are totally incapable of contraction it is called akinesia. This weak segment or segments of the left lower chamber of the heart (left ventricle) expands and bulges like a balloon or a sac filled with blood. This is called an aneurysm.
What are the symptoms of extensive heart attack?
The symptoms are irregular heartbeat, swelling in the dependent parts of the body usually legs, feet or arms, palpitations, breathlessness, tiredness, weakness, giddiness and stroke.
How do you treat those with this condition?
We undertake a surgery called Ventricular Restoration, more specifically Endo Ventricular Patch Plasty. After a heart attack, the heart undergoes a process of remodeling resulting in enlargement of the left ventricular cavity leading to an increase in oxygen demand.
The natural helical motion of heart muscle wall contraction is distorted resulting in poor functioning of the ventricle. As the heart enlarges, the mitral valve between the left upper and lower chambers dilates and the valve begins to leak.
Surgical Ventricular Restoration seeks to reverse the anatomical changes and restore the left ventricle to a more normal, spherical shape and size, by reducing the volume of impaired (dyskinetic) or non-contracting (akinetic) muscle mass in front (anterior) of the heart and the muscle wall (septum) that separates the chambers using a synthetic patch. In addition, a coronary artery bypass surgery and repair of the mitral valve is done.
What are the benefits of Surgical Ventricular Restoration?
It avoids hospital re-admission for heart failure, prevents rupture of the heart chamber and improves survival. Our team has performed over a 1000 Ventricular Restoration procedures. Despite being a challenging procedure, we have a success rate of 85-90% depending on the severity of the condition. For further detail call: 98402 94555
