UAE | General
Punching holes in hearts to save lives
- By Mahmood Saberi, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:00 August 24, 2003
An American doctor who punches holes in hearts with lasers, says his new technique saves lives of people too ill to undergo heart surgeries.
"This new technique will soon be approved by the Food and Drug Administration," says Dr Fayaz Shawl, director of interventional cardiology, Washington Adventist Hospital, Maryland.
The internationally renowned cardiologist was in Sharjah to give a talk about his new procedure at Zulekha Hospital. The idea came about after studying hearts of reptiles such as alligators and snakes which have no coronary arteries but only small channels from the inside of the heart to the heart wall.
Basically, a laser is used to "drill" tiny channels through the wall of the heart allowing blood to flow to ischemic areas, or clogged arteries.
Local doctors say his technique could be implemented here only five or six years after training under him. This non-surgical technique is called PTMR, or percutaneous transmyocardial revascularisation.
Dr Shawl first used this technique in India in 1997 and since then has nine successful cases in the same country and over 30 cases at Washington Adventist. The laser is introduced through a tiny tube inserted through the groin.
He predicts this could one day help nearly one million Americans crippled by chest pain called angina. The doctor says that drilling holes stimulates the heart to grow new blood vessels.
Dr Shawl estimates that eight to 10 per cent of those with coronary artery disease, or nearly one million Americans, could benefit from PTMR. He has also performed 15,000 other procedures that open blocked arteries in the heart, legs, kidneys, and others which go to the brain.
"My procedure is a one-stop shopping," he says. "This prevents strokes, prevents heart attacks, prevents kidney failure, prevents ulcers, prevents gangrene."
The doctor who is also the innovator of the heart-lung bypass support system, says with the aid of his equipment, "You cannot die."
It is named after him as the Shawl Technique. "Your heart stops, then this machine takes over and you work on the underlying problem."
Dr Shawl is the only living doctor to have a laboratory named after him during his lifetime at the Washington Adventist Hospital. He has also been awarded the U.S. Physician of the Year Award.
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