Heart Surgery with Cardioplegia of 40-minutes at IMS, BHU

Doctors at the department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University have conducted a four-hour-long rare surgery with Cardioplegia going upto 40 minutes.

The heart was stopped almost 40 minutes, under observation of a team of 20 medical and paramedical staff involved in the operation.

An artificial heart and lung is used for the surgery purpose, by putting the patient on a heart and lung machine. This rare surgery got financial assistance from the Prime Minister and Chief Minister Relief Fund.

The surgeon, Dr. Siddharth Lakhotia, who led the operation, is implied to have said that this surgery required us to stop the patient’s hearts and lungs. During the 40 minutes of stopping the heart, we used the artificial support. Patient has now recovered and will be discharged soon. We have been continuously performing open heart surgical procedures, since we are an important link for patients between Lucknow and Kolkata doing it, he further implied.

As reported by TOI, according to Lakhotia, an 18-year old boy with complaints of breathlessness and tiredness came in the OPD recently. He was diagnosed with a case of Sub-Aortic Membrane. In this disease, there is a thin membranous structure, present just beneath the aortic valve of heart. This may be congenital or acquired. Aortic valve is the valve present between heart's left side and main blood vessel of body called aorta. Such cases are very rare.

Dr. Lakhotia said that in IMS, this operation was done for the first time. In this case due to membrane, patient's aorta and left lower chamber of heart were grossly damaged. After removing the membrane, they will slowly become normal and the pressure over heart will be slowly normalized.