Punjab heart surgeon invited to give keynote address at prestigious scientific meet

Ludhiana, December 19, 2018: It is a proud moment for Punjab that its leading heart surgeon – Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Chairman Cardio Vascular Endovascular & Thoracic Sciences – was invited to give a keynote address on 18th December 2018 in Bangalore at the Stratasys 2018 Forum. The Forum is a prestigious group of innovators, medical superspecialists, engineers and computer whiz people involved in cutting edge 3D printing technology.
In a perfect example of high tech technology helping surgical skills – a 3D print of a rare and potentially fatal malformation helped in the conduct of a safe perfect surgery. Mr Gurinder Singh (name changed) a student of was noted to have a bluish discoloration of his body since childhood along with shortness of breath. It was thought that he had a heart problem and no specific treatment was done. When his colour started getting worse he came to Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Chairman Cardiac Sciences in Ludhiana. Since his heart reports were normal a CT scan was done and it showed the problem. There was a large connection between the right sided pulmonary artery and vein which was bypassing the lung. So blue blood was entering the body without picking up oxygen. This is called a large pulmonary arterio-venous malformation (AVM) . Dr Bedi realized that the AVM could suddenly burst leading to a life threatening bleeding. On the CT the malformation looked extremely complex with the arteries and veins hopelessly intermixed . The treatment was an early intervention . However it was expected to cause major problems during the procedure as the pathology was intricate.
So Dr Bedi decided to take the help of a new technology called 3D printing . This is being done in the Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College by Prof Rupinder Singh. Using the CT scan images as a base Prof Rupinder Singh used special equipment to create a life sized 3D print of the malformation. This specimen could be rotated all around and visualized from all angles . After a careful study of this specimen Dr Bedi went ahead with the surgery . This would normally have taken over 3 hours and there was a risk that even a 1 mm mistake could trigger a torrential bleed .With the foresight provided by the 3D – Dr Bedi was able to remove the whole AVM in just 23 minutes with hardly any blood loss. Mr Gurjeet Singh recovered well. His bluish colour has been replaced with a healthy normal pink and his breathing is normal.
Prof Rupinder Singh who is a senior Faculty at the GNE said that this technology is available only in a very few centres in India. Dr Bedi said that he could forsee the immense contribution of this modality in minimally invasive surgery and precise procedures all of which lead to enhanced patient safety. It was like having a prescient knowledge – he commented. On an exhaustive internet search there has been no mention of the use of 3D printing in such a potentially dangerous pathology.
On the basis of his ground breaking use of this technology Dr Bedi was specially chosen to give the keynote address. The lecture generated immense interest in the International audience and was followed by animated interaction. All the learned scientists felt that there was an immense potential in the technology and it would go a long way in improving the results of medical therapy. Mr Ryan Schultz - Vice President of the Forum – congratulated Dr Bedi on the innovative use of technology in surgery and wished that he would continue the use of this cutting edge technology to deliver better medical care to all.