Bangalore:Heart diseases contribute to the highest number of deaths in India. Coronary artery diseases and Valvular heart diseases are the major contributor to heart diseases.With an aim to promote better skills in valve repair procedures and to showcase the latest techniques that surgeons all over the world are using to treatvalvular heart disease, Fortis Hospitals has organized a live workshop under the aegis of the Asia Pacific Valve Repair Group. The focus of the workshop is to demonstrate the importance and merits of heart valve repair– tricuspid, aortic, pulmonary and mitral, in comparison to valve replacement surgery and the benefits to the patient.
Explaining the advantages of valve repair surgery over valve replacement, Dr. VivekJawali, Chairman, Cardiovascular Sciences Fortis Hospitals and a pioneer in awake heart surgery said “Valvular heart diseases is a major cause for morbidity and mortality.With low socioeconomic status, improper hygiene, improper treatment and unavailability of medical services rheumatic heart disease is still prevalent in India. Other causes like ageing, infective endocardits, and inborn errors also add to the problem.With medical facilities in rural India still in infantile state, diagnosing problems related to heart suffer, and so patients present in a very late stage to the physicians.”
The commonest way to remedy a valvular heart problem would be replacement of the valve with either a mechanical or a bioprosthetic valve. Both have their disadvantages. With mechanical valve, requiring blood thinning drugs, lifelong monitoring of the patient’s blood for the level of anticoagulation is a major problem. Bioprosthetic valves have the disadvantage that they may fail and require surgery for their replacement
Valve repair is a major move away from replacement. The mitral valve repair for mitral valve disease is the preferred method for these patients. Special technical expertise is required to do this procedure but benefits to the patients are enormous in terms of preservation of the heart function, no need for blood thinners and better quality of life for these patients.
Aortic Valve repair is a much more complicated procedure and very few surgeons in the world have the expertise for this complex operation. Although done predominantly for patients with a leaking valve, newer techniques are being evolved for patients with a stenosed valve. One such operation was conducted today at Fortis Hospitals on a patient with aortic stenosis where his aortic valve was replaced with a neo aortic valve made from the patient’s own tissues.
“Finally there is clear advantage for repair over replacement in all the patients. The advantages of repair include a significant reduction in mortality, infection rates and stroke rates over replacement, there is a significant improvement in quality of life of the patient, with the same survival curve of the normal person. After valve repairs, the need for medicines and blood thinners is reduced significantly when compared to valve replacement” added Dr. Jawali.
Eminent heart surgeons from across India and around the world including Dr. Al Halees, Head of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Dr. Ozaki, Head of Cardiovascular Surgery, Toho University Ohashi Hospital, Tokyo, Japanis a part of the session, sharing their knowledge on the surgical interventions for heart valve disease and stimulate the knowledge of participating doctors.
Source: Lokesh Shastri