Srinagar, Dec 8: Cardiac surgeons at the premier tertiary care hospital, SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Srinagar, have achieved a major feat by conducting advanced ‘beating heart’ procedures on patients suffering from congenital Atrial Defect.
The medicos have performed the surgeries using an advanced concept “Warm Perfusion Beating Heart Surgery,” introduced first time in the Institute for correcting “Confluent Atrial Septal Defect with Severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.”
Giving details about the procedure, Head Department of Cardiac Surgery, Dr GN Lone, told Greater Kashmir that the newer technique would reduce mortality among patients. Dr Lone said he along with his team had performed 25 such surgeries so far and every patient is doing fine.
First time we performed the surgery on a girl from Bihar. The girl was diagnosed with “Confluent Atrial Septal Defect with Severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension”. “Subsequently, she was operated upon in the CVTS department of the Institute for open heart surgery,” Dr Lone said.
It involved the correction of congenital heart defect without paralyzing the heart using the advanced technique. “The procedure conducted for the first time in the Valley lasted for one and a half hour and started a new era in the treatment of congenital heart disease,” Dr Lone said.
A team of cardiac surgeons including Dr Lone, Dr Shyam Singh, Dr Abdul Majid Dar, Dr Farooq Ahmad and Dr Nasir operated on the girl on November 21, 2012. “Anesthesia team included Prof. Zahoor Ahmad Shah and Dr. Shafat,” he said.
Dr Lone said the girl was discharged from the Institute within a couple of days after recovery. “Her family had to

spend just Rs 35,000 for her treatment which was arranged by some local volunteers from Ellahi Bagh, Srinagar. Such a surgery would have cost her family more than Rs 3 lakhs if operated in any hospital at New Delhi or Chandigarh,” he said.
Dr Lone said heart must be paralyzed in an open heart surgery using an artificial machine called “Cardiopulmonary Bypass Machine” to take over the function of heart and lungs. “But in this case using the newer technique, heart was kept beating to correct the defect with lesser risk of complication,” he said.
Dean Medical Faculty and Head Department of Cardiology, Prof. Khurshid Iqbal, and Director SKIMS, Prof. Showkat Ali Zargar, have congratulated the team of surgeons for the feat. The Director has assured the surgical team of full support with latest gadgets for upgrading the infrastructure of the CVTS department which has terribly suffered during the last three decades.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 8 Dec 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 8 Dec 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Dec 2012 00:00:00 IST