A cardiology team in Imphal successfully performed the first ever Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) in the entire north-eastern region at a heart care centre in Manipur capital Imphal this month.
The first ever TAVI procedure was conducted at Imphal Heart Institute (IHI).
The institute is a two-year old cardiac care hospital attached with the premises of popular Mother’s care children hospital and research centre at Sagolband in Imphal.
The complex implantation was done on August 7 last.
This was informed by the managing director Dr Kh Ratankumar Singh of IHI on Wednesday evening.
Two to three hours long procedure basically is replacement of the damaged, non-functional aortic valve inside the beating heart by artificial functioning valve without surgical opening of the heart, Dr Ratankumar told reporters in Imphal.
The replacement was done on a 65-year-old lady patient who had bicuspid aortic valve with severe narrowing of the valve since birth.
Otherwise people normally have three leaflets instead of two.
“Lot of hard and month long planning is required for such kind of team work with a high end procedure,” Dr Ratan said.
“With the recent successful procedure, IHI has finally put Manipur in TAVI map of the country.”
The TAVI was performed successfully by a cardiology team led by chief cardiology Dr Khumukcham Jelen and chief cardiac surgeon Dr Arambam Athouba Singh of IHI which is an equipped heart care centre.
Routine check up for heart patients were also done on a daily basis at IHI.
The cost of the TAVI procedure in other parts of the country is usually above Rs 20 lakhs.
Out of some 1400 cath labs across the country, TAVI is performed in only 30 odd cath Labs so far.
PGIMER Chandigarh had reported doing their first two cases recently.
According to reports available, the cardiology team at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai had also exhibited their expertise by handling a challenging elderly patient with critical aortic stenosis who suddenly developed in-hospital cardiac arrest in August 2018.
