68-yr-old undergoes keyhole op, bypasses open-heart surgery

Nagpur: After doctors ruled out angioplasty and open-heart surgery fearing complications and longer ICU stay, a 68-year-old woman underwent minimal invasive keyhole coronary artery bypass surgery at a private hospital in the city.The surgery worked well for the elderly patient as she resumed walking just a day after the operation and was also shifted out of the ICU. Consulting cardiologist Dr Saurabh Varshney, who performed the surgery at KIMS-Kingsway, said that keyhole operation is a boon for elderly patients. “Conventional surgery would have increased here ICU stay by up to 8 days. Sternotomy, the cutting of sternum bone, causes much pain too,” he said.The woman had three blockages in her heart’s main artery. “We usually prefer a keyhole method for valve replacement or repairing a hole in the heart. It just needs a 4cm or 2-inch incision,” he said.Dr Varshney added that scars from open-heart surgery leaves a life-long negative impact on the patient’s body and mind. “At times, we have young women suffering from holes in their hearts. If we cut them from midline, the scar remains for the rest of the life. In a keyhole, they are free of the scar and blood loss too is minimum,” he said.The cardiologist said that he used keyhole surgery on an 80-year-old patient too. “It is as good as angioplasty at such a ripe age. Cardiac surgery in individuals in their 80s is a very risky affair,” he said.High risk patients like those having poor heart pumping, or multiple blockages are operated in routine methods.