Punjab: Medical fraternity recognizes Dr Harinder Singh Bedi's Endovascular achievement as world first

Chandigarh: It is a matter of great pride for all of India that a procedure performed in Punjab has been recognized as a World First by the medical fraternity.

Dr Harinder Singh Bedi, Director of Cardio Vascular and Endovascular Sciences at the Ivy Hospital in Mohali told that the procedure was a minimally invasive one in a very high-risk patient.

Explaining further he said that the patient Mr Sukhbir Singh (name changed) was a 55-year-old who had a massive aneurysm (ie ballooning out) of his artery behind the knee – called the popliteal artery.

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This had ruptured with loss of over 2-liter blood in the thigh. The patient experienced unbearable pain and came to Dr Bedi. On examination and investigation, it was realized that the patient was very anemic due to the loss of blood. Also, the aneurysm could burst again with risk to life and limb. Dr Bedi has seen very few such cases in Sydney where he has worked earlier. The standard treatment is open surgery which carries some risk as the patient had multiple co-morbidities and also had a phobia for surgery.

So a minimally invasive procedure was planned. With great precision in a hi-tech cardiac cath lab - a special stent was used to exclude the aneurysm and restore normal flow to the leg. Dr Bedi explained that since the knee is a very flexible joint it was imperative to get a stent that could bend multiple times a day without getting damaged.

He used a Covera Plus stent which is the latest and would be perfect for this area. The patient had immediate relief of pain and his leg vascularity was restored. On a literature search, it was found that this particular stent has never been used in the World for this indication. The report was written up and sent to the prestigious Indian Journal of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery.

The report was thoroughly investigated by experts, accepted as a World First and then published in the latest edition (Bedi HS……First global use of a cover plus covered stent graft for successful endovascular repair of a ruptured popliteal artery aneurysm. Ind J VascEndovascSurg 2021 (July-Sep); 8: 266-8).

This is a matter of great pride and is also a boon for any such patient in the future. Dr Bedi has worked earlier in the Escorts Heart New Delhi and the St Vincent's Hospital Sydney and is one of the few surgeons trained in both Cardiac and Endovascular Surgery. The other members of his team are Dr Jiten Singh and Dr Vikram Arora.

Dr Bedi stated that the Ivy Hospital was at the forefront in bringing International technology to the people of India and had a world-class infrastructure for the same.

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