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Emergency - 66520100 |
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CRT post valve replacement: A challenge well met!
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Dr. Dilip Kumar, Sr Interventional Cardiologist at Medica, recently conducted an unusual procedure on a 53-year-old male patient. The person was a post valve replacement patient, having undergone Aortic Valve Implantation in 2006. However, when the patient came to Medica in end April, he was showing symptoms of heart failure. He complained of constant fatigue, limited mobility and shortness of breath. He was also struggling with psychological problems like low confidence, anxiety and tension, which had greatly compromised his quality of life.
After an initial assessment Dr. Kumar suggested Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy. The surgery was performed successfully on 3rd May 2012. Just 24 hours post surgery, the patient started showing increase in functional capacity. He soon became ambulatory with no signs of shortness of breath and fatigue. His overall condition has shown a significant improvement. Very soon he will be able to resume all his normal activities including his professional work.
For Dr. Kumar, this was a very challenging case. This was the 3rd such case performed at Medica.
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A proud moment for Medica |
Joydeep Daschaudhuri (3rd from left) with the winning team |
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Medica’s Department of Physiotherapy & Rehab added another feather to its cap when sports therapist Mr. Joydeep Daschaudhuri accompanied the Indian National Archery Team when it participated in the World Archery Championship held at Ogden, USA, in an official capacity. It was a moment of great pride for us when the team won the Silver Medal at the championship, thus qualifying for the London Olympics. |
| Rare Double Switch procedure performed successfully |
Medica Institute of Cardiac Sciences has written a new chapter in the history of paediatric cardiac surgery in Kolkata. Congenitally Corrected Transposition of Great Arteries (CCTGA) is a very rare cardiac anomaly which accounts for just 1% of the total population of children with cardiac disorders. This anomaly generally does not come alone but is associated with other disorders like VSD, Pulmonary Stenosis, Pulmoary Atresia etc. In this condition the stronger morphological left ventricle is pumping deoxygenated blood in to the pulmonary artery and the weaker right ventricle is pumping oxygenated blood into the Aorta, also there is a hole in between the left and the right ventricle better known as VSD and there is a blockage in the pulmonary artery not allowing smooth passage of blood in to the lungs. These children have breathing difficulties right from birth and turn blue due to decreased oxygen supply. Surgical correction of this anomaly is a very complex operation called as Double Switch Operation, There are other lesser complicated surgical procedures such as Bi Directional Glenn Shunt or Fontans Procedure, but these operations do not correct the defect but just redirect the flow of blood to the lungs via a tube graft. Double Switch Operation is the standard procedure as far as correction of CCTGA is concerned. Very few hospitals in India perform this procedure and as far as Kolkata is concerned none of the hospitals so far has done this procedure.
 The cardiac surgery team led by Dr. Ratan Kumar Das, Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon of Medica Institute of Cardiac Sciences, successfully performed this complex Double Switch Operation (Combined Senning’s and Rastell’is procedure)on 6 June 2012 on a 5 year old female child who was diagnosed with CCTGA, VSD, Pulmonary Atresia, PDA and with previous history of surgery to increase blood flow to the lungs (B T Shunt) . This complex operation involved the following steps. At first the VSD was closed in such a way that the blood from morphological left ventricle is pumped in to the Aorta, secondly the pure and impure blood was redirected to their normal ventricles by means of an Atrial Switch(Sennings Procedure) and lastly the pulmonary artery was joined to the morphological right ventricle by means of a valved Bovine Jugular vein conduit. This whole procedure took close to eight hours and the child was removed from the ventilator next morning. She can now lead a normal life like any other kid of her age with no need for any reoperations in the near future. Prior to this case Dr. Ratan Das has successfully operated on two such children in another centre in a different city. The cardiac surgery team consisted of Dr. Ratan Das, Dr. Dhritabrata Das, Dr. Abhijit Paul, Dr. Saikat Banerjee, Dr. Ashima Bhelotkar, Mr. Chittaranjan Dash and Mr. Tanmay Acharya. |
“Palm-sized” Miracle Babies |
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Medica’s Department of Neonatology & Perinatal Medicine recently succeeded in performing the near impossible task of saving 26 weeks premature twins through state-of-the-art technology and untiring efforts by a team of doctors, led by Dr. Ashok Mittal (HOD) and and his dedicated team at the Hospital.
Being a high-risk pregnancy through In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), the premature babies - a boy (weighing 900 gms) and a girl (weighing 500 gms) - were born to Mr. and Mrs. Debnath in the hospital on March 2, 2012. Having survived serious medical complications over the last 70-odd days, the twins (the boy weighing 1250 grams and the girl weighing more than 1050 grams now) have been recently discharged from the hospital.
This couple had tough time in conceiving a baby, and had taken the help of an infertility specialist to conceive through the method of IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) technique. They were very happy that Mrs Debnath got pregnant with twin babies after the very first cycle of IVF. However, their happiness did not last as she started to have labour pains at around 26 weeks. She was immediately admitted to Medica Superspecialty Hospital, and a trial was taken to stop her labour from progressing. Steroids were also administered to the mother, with the aim to help the babies' lungs to grow, in anticipation of premature delivery. Unfortunately, after 5 days of treatment, she started to bleed, and decision had to be taken to take the babies out to save both mother and the babies.
Start was not good for the two little ones, who were suddenly out of the mother's womb, in this alien world at an incredibly low weight of 500 grams and 900 grams. Both babies required immediate assistance with breathing. Apart from oxygen, the babies also required distending pressure in the lungs through their nostrils using a machine called CPAP, considered the most gentle way of providing respiratory support to tiny infants.
A premature infant is born with an immature body with all the organs still not developed properly. During their 70 days stay in the Medica NICU they suffered all the possible complications of prematurity including breathing difficulty, a patent duct in the heart, feeding intolerance, blood-stream infection, deadly infection of the tummy etc. Surprisingly, the younger daughter weighing 500 grams fared better than her brother at 900 grams. She never required ventilator, against a common belief that such premature babies become dependent on ventilator.
Having saved hundreds of premature babies in the past, it was still a big challenge for Dr. Mittal as every premature baby is different. The common worry being internal bleeding inside the brain cavities (called intra-ventricular haemorrhage), which the baby girl escaped but the baby boy suffered a minor bleed. Their eyes when examined, revealed evidence of eye damage because of prematurity (called Retinopathy of prematurity) and hence a laser surgery had to be done on both the babies’ by an eye specialist.
The entire team in the NICU thanked the parents who never gave up and laid complete trust & faith in the teams’ abilities and intentions.
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Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Replacement Surgery performed at Medica |
A team of surgeons at Medica Superspecialty Hospital recently added a new chapter to the History of Cardiac Surgery in Eastern India. Led by Dr. Ratan Kumar Das, Director Cardiac surgery, the team successfully conducted a Minimally Invasive Thoracoscopy Assisted Mitral Valve Replacement on 20 June on an 18 year old patient from Orissa, suffering from Rheumatic Heart disease with severe Mitral Regurgitation.
This was the first such surgery performed in Eastern India.
The patient was extubated one hour after the surgery and is doing well now.
Rajiv Behera (name changed on request) had been suffering from breathlessness and fatigue for quite some time. When he visited a physician in Orissa, the doctor advised him to consult Dr. Das at Medica in Kolkata. After the initial round of check-ups Dr. Das was convinced that surgery was the best option and post discussions with his team and the patient’s relatives, he decided to conduct the surgery by the minimally invasive procedure.
The procedure involves performing surgery through a small hole in right side of the chest wall with special thoracoscopic instrument and femoro -femoral bypass. The procedure leaves a very small, cosmetically desirable, scar under the breast as in laparoscopic surgery.
Renowned Cardiac surgeon from Belgium Dr. Hogo Verman is credited with first bringing the procedure to public knowledge, the letter on it was popularised by Dr. Chitwood in USA and Dr. F Mohr of Leipzig Heart Centre in Germany. Medica launched this programme a couple of months ago after Dr Das spent some time with Prof F Mohr in Leipzig Heart Centre to learn this procedure. At present this procedure is used in only a handful of medical centres in India. However, it is gaining popularity very fast and is soon likely to become the procedure of choice in Mitral Valve Surgery.
Almost all types of Mitral Valve Surgery, Tricuspid Valve Surgery, Adult ASD closure, and Cardiac tumours can be operated by this technique.
Other members of the team involved in the surgery include Dr Abhijit Paul, Dr. Saikat Banerjee, Dr Ashima Velotkar and Mr. Tanmay Acharia. |
Surgical treatment for Parkinson’s Disease |
Medica Institute of Neurological Diseases has introduced surgical treatment
of Parkinsonism, tremors and dystonias. Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
is a surgical procedure used in the brain to treat a variety of disabling
neurological symptoms - particularly the debilitating symptoms of
Parkinson’s disease such as tremor, rigidity, stiffness, slowed movement,
and walking problems. The procedure is also used to treat essential
tremor and dystonia, which cause uncontrolled involuntary neck or limb
movements. Patients suffering from severe depression and chronic pain have
also benefited greatly from this treatment.
DBS uses a surgically implanted, battery-operated medical device called a
neurostimulator - similar to a heart pacemaker and approximately the size
of a stopwatch - to deliver electrical stimulation to targeted areas in the
brain that control movement, blocking the abnormal nerve signals that cause
tremor and abnormal symptoms.
This path-breaking treatment leads to many patients experiencing
considerable relief from their symptoms and greatly reduces the intake of
medication and their associated side effects. MIND provides a complete and
most advanced setup for Deep Brain Stimulation.
The Institute held a two-day Medica Functional Neurosurgery Workshop
at the hospital on the 8th and 9th of November 2010.
Prof. Tipu Aziz, Professor and Head of Functional Neurosurgery unit
at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England and Dr. Dipankar Nandi,
Consultant Neurosurgeon, Charing Cross Hospital and Sr. Lecturer Imperial
College Healthcare NHS Trust, delivered incisive lectures in their respective
fields.
Live surgery was performed for tremor (essential and Parkinson disease),
by the renowned neurosurgeons along with MIND Director Dr. Tripathy
and his team. The surgery was performed on a 53-year-old woman who has
been suffering from Parkinson’s for the past 10 years. The patient had severe
tremor in the right side of her body. Doctors installed a neurostimulator,
known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to provide electrical stimulation to
targeted areas of the brain that control movement and block abnormal nerve
signals causing severe tremor. Post surgery the patient was completely cured
of her symptoms.
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ENT uses path breaking procedure to treat child |
Medica ENT Institute is proud to have conducted a "sialendoscopy camp" in Kolkata, the first such case in eastern India
Sialendoscopy is a new technique that has been developed only in the last decade. This highly specialised technique that is practised in only select centres in the world as yet, involves introducing a very thin endoscope of about 0.7mm into the salivary glands and their ducts to see inside them so as to diagnose disorders of these salivary glands and also treat them.
Most patients with salivary gland disorders have either stones or constrictions (called strictures) in the outflow channels. Conventional forms of treatment usually involve extensive open surgery to remove the whole gland with the possibility of serious complications.
With Sialendoscopy it is now possible to extract stones and dilate constrictions in the channels to treat such disorders without the need for extensive operations.
Among the patients who underwent this path breaking new procedure for the very first time in West Bengal was a small child of 3 1/2 years with "Juvenile Recurrent Parotitis" a condition where recurrent infections in the major salivary glands (called the parotids) cause narrowing of the outflow channels. Not only was this new technique used to diagnose her condition but the doctors at Medica ENT Institute were also able to institute a therapeutic instillation of medicines in her channels to help improve her condition |
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Successful surgery on 17-day-old baby |
Medica ENT Institute has added another feather to its cap. Doctors at the Institute recently operated successfully on a large vallecular cyst in the throat of a 17-day-old Mizo baby. This large cyst, sitting above the wind and food pipes, was making the baby very sick and without surgery the baby would not survive. The child was a patient of renowned paediatric surgeon Dr. Ishika Ghosh of Bhagirathi Neotia Hospital. The child was shifted to Medica Superspecialty Hospital early in the morning where a team of doctors was waiting for him.
Medica’s Anaesthesia department did a most wonderful job intubating and anaesthetising such a difficult airway ably supported by a neonatologist.
The surgery was quite challenging and required excellent coordination between the operating team members with three pairs of hands working in perfect harmony to complete the surgery through the tiny mouth of the baby. Post surgery the child has been shifted back to Neotia safely.
This was the third case where another hospital has sought Medica ENT’s expertise to treat very sick babies, the previous two referrals having come from RTIICS to help diagnose and treat airway problems in small children. |
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