Kolkata: In a first of its kind surgery in the city, doctors at Eastern Railway’s BR Singh Hospital have successfully replaced the Mitral valves of two patients without stopping their hearts.
Doctors say, the 51-year-old woman was suffering from a severely stenotic rheumatic mitral valve disease, which required her mitral valve to be replaced. Such surgeries are normally performed after the heart is stopped by using a special solution called cardioplegia. After the surgery, the surgeon has to restart the heart and reintroduce blood into the heart muscles. The mitral valve consists of two flaps and is responsible for controlling the flow of blood into the heart.
A team of two doctors at the hospital conducted the surgery with the help of a heart-lung machine. The heart was continuously supplied with oxygenated blood and it remained in a state of slow beating to enable the mitral valve to be replaced with metallic valves.
Cardiologists at the hospital say this is the first time such surgeries have been performed in eastern India. “For the first time, such a surgery was performed in eastern India. A handful may have been performed elsewhere in the country,” said cardiac specialist Alok Mazumdar who along with Himanshu K Dasmahapatra was in the surgery team.
Such surgeries, doctors say give elderly patients and other with complicated issues higher chance of survival.
