Chennai: In a rare and complex surgery, a 60-year-old woman with rheumatic heart diseases, underwent a cardiac valve replacement for the fifth time at the SIMS hospital in the city.
The cardiac surgery team headed by Dr V V Bashi, director and senior consultant, Institute of Cardiac & Aortic Disorders (ICAD) performed this ‘extremely challenging’ surgery of opening the heart for the fifth time and replacing the degenerated bio-prosthetic (tissue) valve of the sexagenarian woman, adding more healthy years to her life.
Talking to reporters on this ‘first of its kind rare and complex surgery’ performed in Tamilnadu, Dr Bashi said with continued advances in heart surgeries, now more and more re-operative cardiac surgeries were being performed to improve life expectancy of the cardiac patients.
‘However, a fifth-time valve replacement of the heart remains a rare and extremely risky surgery in my 40-year career’, he said, adding, this requires extensive experience and precision, as it is an extremely complicated procedure carrying risk of life and cardiac failure.