Latest minimally invasive endovascular therapy technique used successfully in CMC

Ludhiana, August 30, 2013: Anita Gupta (name changed) – a   31 year old practicing advocate was in a dire problem. She was unable to breathe even at rest. This problem occurred suddenly and progressed rapidly over a week. She had severe chest pain and coughed out bright blood.

On investigation it was found that she was suffering from a serious disease called sub massive pulmonary embolism. She was referred to Dr. Harinder Singh Bedi – Head of Cardio Vascular Endovascular & Thoracic Surgery at the Christian Medical College &Hospital, Ludhiana. Dr. Bedi realised that the condition was potentially fatal. In pulmonary embolism blood gets clotted and stuck inside the artery to the lungs. The lungs just get choked and there is no oxygen exchange possible. Dr. Bedi explained that the disease is a double whammy as at the same time the heart gets stretched as it is unable to pump blood into a clot and so starts to fail. If untreated – the condition is rapidly fatal.

The standard therapy is a major open heart surgery called Pulmonary Endarterectomy. Dr. Bedi has had special experience of this technique when he was at the St Vincents Hospital in Sydney. However the problem in Anita was that she had extremely poorly functioning lungs. There was a grave concern she would not tolerate the anesthesia and the use of the heart lung machine. So Dr. Bedi decided to use a radical technique called Catheter Directed Thrombolysis.

Dr. Bedi explained that in this endovascular surgery – a special catheter is taken directly into the clot and a very strong blood thinner called tPA(tissue plasminogen activator) is injected directly . This dissolves the clot and relieves the block .The procedure worked like a miracle and Anita recovered immediately and is breathing normally. Her heart echo and CT scan showed a complete disappearance of the clot.

The other members of the CTVS Heart Team involved in this endovascular surgery are Dr. S Garg, Dr. Melchi, Dr. A Verghese, Dr. JP Singh, Dr. Amrutha, Dr Pearl and Dr. Rakhi.

Dr Abraham G Thomas – Director of CMC & H, Ludhiana said that the CMC was committed to bring International care to the people of the region so that otherwise hopeless cases could be treated. Dr. Bedi said that the company which makes the drug (EmCure) has told him that this was the first ever use of the drug in Punjab in this disease.