Hyderabad Cardiologist granted patent for medical device to treat Ventricular Septal Defect

Hyderabad: A new era in the medical field is about, to begin with, the introduction of an innovative life-saving device for children developed by the Director of Rainbow Children’s Heart Institute, Dr Nageswara Rao Koneti, a cardiologist and his team.

Dr Rao and his team have designed and developed a device to treat Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) in children. This is a cardiac device that acts as an occluder and this helps in operating on children with Ventricular septal defects.

The development has received huge praise and the hospital has gained a name for its life-saving initiative toward the children.

VSD is a birth defect of the heart in which there is a hole in the wall (septum) that separates the two lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart. This wall is also called the ventricular septum.

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The device has got a patent by the Indian government after several critical examinations in February 2023 following approval from European EC in 2019. Euro-African and Korean patents were granted in 2021 and 2022, Telangana Today reports.

According to the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, more than 2 lakh children are estimated to have been born with some type of congenital heart disease in India and at least 20% of them require early medical intervention.

However, VSDs are the most common form of congenital heart defect and can be addressed very successfully with the right ventricular septal defect treatment.

Dubbed as KONAR-MF (KOneti NAgeswara Rao- Multi-Functional) occlude, it is a novel device that is primarily used for the closure of ventricular septal defects. Being “multifunctional,” the occluder has the potential to be useful in various structural cardiac defects. It is soft, low to medium profile, malleable device with less clamping force, thus potentially reduces the risks of complete heart block.

The Konar-MF occluder has quite a few interesting attributes which make it a very exciting addition to the paediatric catheterisation laboratory. The asymmetric design with screws on either side provides both antegrade as well as retrograde delivery options in many complicated scenarios. The low-profile occluder also offers potential advantages for small children. With proper knowledge of anatomy and when used with proper judgement, in various situations, the occluder lives up to its “multifunctional” nomenclature.

Traditionally, surgeons employed open heart surgery to treat ventricular septal defects of the heart. However, due to the inherent complications of conducting an open heart surgery, the treatment for VSD shifted to transcatheter device closure.

Dr Rao and his team have been working since 2009 to develop the technique and the appropriate occluder for the transcatheter device closure of VSDs. The early results were presented at the American college of cardiology meeting at Chicago, USA in 2012.

Now the device is available commercially through Lifetech Scientific co, Schengen. More than 10000 patients got benefitted in the last 3 years using the device in more than 72 countries, including Germany, Italy, UK, USA and Japan. The cost of the device in India is much lesser (50%) than in any other country.