Ernakulam General Hospital performs complex heart surgery

KOCHI: Creating history, Ernakulam General Hospital (GH) performed a complex heart surgery through a minimally invasive procedure. District collector Renu Raj shared the news on the collector's social media page.
The surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has been successfully performed on a 69-year-old Perumbavoor native whose aortic valve got narrowed (aortic stenosis) and led to heart failure.The collector said this is the first time any district hospital in the government sector in India is performing TAVR.
"TAVR is a keyhole surgery. Keyhole is made on the femoral artery on both legs and a catheter is inserted which reaches the aortic valve and crosses it with a wire. Later transcatheter aortic valve is advanced over the wire and placed across the damaged aortic valve," said Dr Vijo George, consultant cardiologist at GH.
Cardiologists Dr Ashish Kumar and Dr Paul Thomas also were part of the surgery team.