Eminent cardiologist to visit city today

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 5

The leading cardiologist from New Delhi, Dr TS Kler, who claimed to have revolutionised the heart surgery by implanting a pacemaker via His Bundle pacing will be visiting the city tomorrow.

Dr Kler is executive director (Cardiac Sciences), HOD Cardiology, Director Electrophysiology, at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi.

The procedure was performed on two patients aged 75 years and 63 years, who needed a pacemaker implant.

“The procedure imitates the physiological pacing of the heart and is an improvement over traditional pacemaker implantation. The procedure marks a breakthrough not just in India, but also the SAARC region,” Dr Kler claimed.

“A section of people (about 10 to 15 percent) who undergo pacemaker implant through the traditional mode suffer from heart failure due to decrease in pumping capacity of heart caused by right ventricle apical pacing,” said Dr Kler.

Telling about the new technology he said, “The new technology involving pacing through His Bundle pacing cuts this risk of future heart failure to almost zero percent. In this breakthrough technique, which is performed by very few doctors across the world, the pacemaker lead is put on directly on the His bundle, which is the junction between the upper and lower chambers of the heart. This replicates the physiological functioning of the heart as its natural electrical impulses travel in normal human heart.”

“In traditional pacemaker pacing there is a long-term risk of patients suffering from heart failure. In fact, 10 to 15 per cent people opting for traditional pacemaker do tend to suffer from heart failures in the longer run. The alternate His Bundle pacing is the physiological way of pacing and therefore cuts this risk,” Dr Kler added.

Pacemaker implant via his bundle pacing

Meaning: It is a technique that saves more lives in the longer run as against the traditional implant procedure and cuts the risk of future heart failure to almost zero per cent.

Drawback

The procedure provides a safer and better technique of providing electricity to lower chambers of heart. But the only problem is that it is technically more demanding and takes little extra time for the procedure. The cost of this pacemaker is almost the same as previous available devices. — Dr TS Kler, hod cardiology, fortis escorts heart institute and research centre, New Delhi