Doctors here used a novel three-pronged approach with the most advanced minimal heart invasive technique to save the life of a 79-year-old man suffering from multiple comorbidities.

The patient had suffered a heart attack with heart failure and was also suffering from advanced kidney disease, pneumonia, anaemia and uncontrolled diabetes making the case very complex.

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The procedure was done via the patient’s hand artery while the patient was awake, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Patparganj, said in a statement on Thursday.

The septuagenarian patient was presented to doctors with severe chest pain, breathlessness, and decreased kidney function. Upon evaluation it was revealed that the patient had suffered a massive heart attack, leading to heart failure.

An echo showed that his heart was pumping at only 30 per cent capacity. Additionally an angiography was done, which revealed that the patient’s main LADA artery (the largest coronary artery) had 95 per cent blockage with gross calcium deposits in the main arteries, and his right artery was non-functional.

Given his age, multiple comorbidities, the doctors decided to use a novel three pronged approach, which involved the impella heart pump (world’s smallest artificial heart that supports with dense calcium cutting), the orbital artectomy balloon (cuts heart artery calcium in very small parts which comes outside body with circulation, to enable stenting) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS- balloon camera that sees inside heart arteries).

“This use of the combination procedure, involving three most advanced cutting edge technologies, was used together for the first time in India,” Dr Pawan Sharma, Associate Director, Cardiology at Max Super Speciality Hospitals Patparganj, said in the statement.

“This technique can be used as an alternative to CABG open bypass in selected cases who are at very high risk for bypass surgery,” Sharma added. A coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is a surgical procedure used to treat coronary heart disease.

The advantages of the novel procedure is that the patient remains awake during the procedure, there is no need for any incision or sutures, no anaesthesia is required, and the procedure is done via the hand artery, keeping the patient mobile and self-dependent.

The patient has been discharged and is doing well now, the doctors said.