Patients suffering from an advanced form of coronary artery disease (CAD) having angina or heart attack in which the blockage becomes very hard due to deposit of calcium need not lose hope. They can now bank upon Shockwave Coronary Lithotripsy, a major advancement over the previous techniques used for such hard blockages like ultra-high pressure balloons or rotatory drills which are difficult to use and carry risk of rupturing the artery.
City-based Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) on Sunday claimed that their team of doctors has performed India's First Coronary Shockwave Lithotripsy wherein they opened up a severely blocked artery in a 67-year-old patient who recently had a heart attack.
"The patient had 90 per cent blocked artery which could not be opened by the standard technique balloon angioplasty at extremely high pressures with balloon bursting and it became impossible to open the blockage.
"Then the novel shockwave balloon was inserted inside the heart artery and sonic pulses delivered to break the calcium in the blockage. After that the blockage opened easily at even low pressures with subsequent stent implantation and a successful procedure," said Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman of the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI) who had led the operation.
The treating doctors said that calcified heart arteries are becoming commoner.
The Shockwave Coronary Lithotripsy is now seen as a hope for those suffering from an advanced form of coronary artery disease (CAD) having angina or heart attack in which the blockage becomes very hard due to deposit of calcium.
