Rare surgery saves life of a patient with complex heart condition

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, April 24

In another milestone achieved by the catheterisation laboratory (Cath Lab) at Government Medical College here, doctors have successfully performed the Ventricular Septal Rupture (VSR) surgery on a 52-year old patient.

The VSR surgery, considered to be one of the most risky surgeries, has a merely 10 per cent chance of success.

Medical professionals said only two such surgeries were performed at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, in the last five years and in both cases, patients had not survived.

Dr Parminder Singh Manghera, in-charge, Cath Lab at GMC said: “In our heart, all four chambers are separate. One of the rare complexities of a heart attack is that the partition separating these four chambers gets ruptured.” He said the surgery was very risky and which was the reason why most of the surgeons avoid it.

He said only three patients of total 1,000 who suffer a heart attack, develop VRS.

The long-awaited Cath Lab preformed its first surgery on October 13, 2021. In less than one year of its operations, the lab performed a total of 225 operations, many of which were life threatening.

In the present times, heart ailments are no more seen as diseases of the rich and those with sedentary lifestyle. Even young and hardworking people are coming up with heart complexities. The Cath Lab run at the GMC is a boon for poor patients as it is providing cost-effective treatment to them.

“The patient, who underwent this VRS, was not charged a single penny, as he had an Ayushman Bharat Insurance card. Even if he did not had any insurance cover, the surgery would have cost nearly Rs. 78,000,” said Dr Jagdev Singh Kular, Vice-Principal, GMC.

Dr Parminder said: “Here at the GMC, we provide world class stent surgery at a cost of Rs. 55,000.” He said Cath Lab was proving a boon for poor patients.

Fact file

• Ventricular Septal Rupture (VRS) surgery, considered one of the most risky surgeries, has a merely 10% chance of success.
• According to medical professionals, only two such surgeries have been performed at the PGIMER, Chandigarh, in the last five years and in both cases, patients have not survived