Patients can take heart with new technique

Heart patients can now take heart. A new technique, Trans Radial Angioplasty - an innovative technique of doing coronary angiography and coronary angioplasty through the forearm artery - allows patients to go back the very next day after the procedure and reduces chances of complications.

Trans Radial Angioplast has been recently started at the Krishna Heart Institute, which has completed 125 such procedures in last one month.

Dr. Shrgeru Saito, director, Interventional Cardiology at Shanan Kamakura General Hospital, Kamakura, Japan and one of the pioneers of this technique, is visiting the hospital for three days where he will interact closely with Dr. Tejas Patel, director of Cardiology department at Krishna Heart Institute. Speaking at a press conference, Patel introduced Saito as one of the finest practioner and teachers of this technique. "He has performed 5,000 trans radial angioplasties in the past five years, even more then those performed by the inventor of the technique," said Patel.

Dr. Shrgeru Saitu said the technique is extremely beneficial for the patient and has less chances of complications. "The patient can go back home the very next day and can even fly back home. In the conventional angioplasty, the patient has to stay in hospital for some days and chances of internal bleeding also exist. But in this one, since there is less muscle in the forearm, there are less chances of excessive bleeding and even if it happens, the doctor realises it very early," said Saito.

Patel also said he was toying with the idea for the past two years because the techinque requies serious dedication and there were other problems too. "The technique works well in other countries where people have bigger arteries but in India, the stature is small and hence even the arteries are small. So I had my doubts but after I saw Dr. Saito performing on Japanese people, who almost have the same stature as Indians, I realised on could do it easily," said Patel.

Krishna Heart Institute is the only hospital in this part of Asia which will be performing trans radial angioplasties on a regular basis. "We also plan to make it a referral centre for teaching not only in India, but in Asia," said Patel adding there is a special trans-radial ICCU in the hospital.

While the comfort level is high in trans radial angioplasty, the cost remains almost at par with routine angioplasties, informed Patel.

Republished from The Indian Express