Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India: Heart, Chest and Vascular Surgery Department of Advanced Cardiac Institute, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital, Raipur, Chhattisgarh performed ‘Aortic Arch Debranching Surgery’ the first surgery done in entire Central India to save the life of a 52-yar old patient.

The aorta of a 52-year-old patient had burst from within due to high blood pressure, which is called ‘aneurysmal aortic dissection’, due to which the patient was suffering from severe chest and back pain for 2 months continuously

Dr. Krishnakant Sahu, Head of the Department of Heart, Chest and Vascular Surgery led a team with Cardiac Anaesthetist Dr. Tanya C., and saved the life of a 52-year-old patient.

Dr K K Sahu giving details said one-and-a-half month ago, a 52 year old (male) patient, resident of Janjgir, had severe pain in the chest and back. He started having a mild cough, for which he consulted the local doctor but there he only complained of pain and cough.

The prescribed medicines he did not get relief. He was taken to Korba Medical College and from there the doctors referred him to the chest department of Ambedkar Hospital, he said.

A CT angiogram revealed that the aorta inside the chest had swelled like a balloon and a hole had formed in its inner wall due to which blood had filled between the inner and outer layer of the aorta, which in medical language is called aortic aneurysmal dissection, he added.

It was found that the aorta was torn at such a place that a stent could not be inserted there. The aorta was torn, the main arteries that supply blood to the brain and hands, called the left carotid artery and the left subclavian artery, are located. The chances were that the patient would have become paralyzed as soon as the stent was inserted.

The right carotid artery (commonly called the right jugular artery) was cut and connected to the left carotid artery (left carotid artery) with a special type of graft (Decon graft) and the left carotid artery was connected to the left hand, he added. After 15 days after the operation, the doctors of the radiology department closed the hole in the patient's aorta by inserting a stent through a vein in his leg.

The patient was discharged from the hospital five days after the successful surgery. The operation was done under the Chief Minister Special Assistance Scheme, Dr Sahu added.