Apollo Hospitals, Chennai successfully operated on an 82-year-old Ex-Army Major General, Dr. Sathyapalan (a medical doctor from 1955 batch of Stanley Medical college – served 33 years in the Indian Army), who was suffering from severe aortic stenosis due to surgical valve failure. Dr. Sai Satish, Senior Interventional Cardiologist and his team replaced the damaged heart valve through Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedure and gave a new lease of life.
Aortic valve stenosis is a common valvular disease that occurs usually in old age due to wear and tear of aortic valve as well as due to calcium deposits on the valve’s flaps that narrow the aortic valve opening. Symptoms include shortness of breath and chest pain that, if left untreated, can be life threatening. Trans Catheter Aortic Valve Implantation or Replacement (TAVI or TAVR) procedure is performed under local anesthesia, the best option to treat such complicated cases. In this procedure a thin, flexible tube housing the new collapsed valve is inserted most commonly through the femoral artery and delivered to the heart, replacing the old diseased valve. This procedure is available only in very few Centres across in India including Apollo Hospitals.
82 years old Ex-Army Major General Dr. Sathyapalan was suffering from severe aortic valve narrowing due to surgical valve failure leading a poor quality of life with repeated episodes of pulmonary edema. He was refused any treatment option by multiple centres because of his age, frailty and that it was a degenerated surgical valve now causing the problem. He approached Dr. Sai Satish, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai for further treatment and underwent a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement procedure.
Explaining the case Dr. Sai Satish, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai said, “This was an extremely challenging case as the vessels in his leg were severely calcified and narrowed and no valve could be moved across them for replacement. Since the patient did not have any old records or information on the previously implanted surgical valve including its size etc., it was further challenging for us to replace the failed valve with a new one. His age and physical health again stood as a high risk making the procedure very demanding.”
He also added, “The procedure however went extremely smoothly, the narrowed leg vessel was first dilated with multiple balloons gently until the space was big enough to accommodate the valve system, the valve was then moved across this and placed safely, inside the old degenerated surgical valve in under 20 minutes.”
The patient was shifted back to the CCU fully conscious and then back to the normal ward the very same evening. He got discharged on the second day of post-surgery and cast his vote for the Lok Sabha Elections.
