Chennai: Interventional cardiology has redefined the lives of people with improved quality of life, even in people aged above 80. Advancements in healthcare have led to improved outcomes for patients, says Dr. Sai Satish, senior interventional cardiologist from Apollo Hospitals, while discussing the scope of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation, Rotablation and MitraClip therapies in improving the treatment of cardiac problems.
More than 46 lakh patients suffer from heart failure in India, who also have a poor quality of life with an extremely high mortality of 50 percent in five years. Mitral regurgitation is one condition responsible for heart failures, in which the heart's mitral valve leaflets do not close tightly. As a result, with every beat blood flows backward inside the heart instead of just going forward, causing fatigue, shortness of breath and finally heart failure.
“The MitraClip has come as a blessing to heart failure patients and simply repairs the mitral valve by clipping its leaflets together via a vein in the leg. It has been used in over 70,000 patients from across the world till date, improving outcomes, and restoring their normal quality of life,” said Dr Sai Satish.
Doctors express concern over the rising prevalence of aortic stenosis that increases sharply with age affecting 1 in 8 people over the age of 75. Dr Sai says that Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) or sometimes-called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) is a solution to aortic stenosis.
“TAVR is a minimally invasive procedure to replace the aortic valve. 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 and the patient recovers in five days,” added Dr Sai.
As people age, the blockages in the arteries gather calcium and harden like bone. As conventional methods are not effective, a small drill called rotablator is used to break it. The rotablator is small enough to fit in an artery and strong enough to drill through the calcified blocks. As the rotablator breaks up the blockage, it grinds it into tiny pieces that can be safely carried away by the bloodstream thereby restoring blood flow.
Dr Sai Satish says that these exciting developments are already saving lives today, as they use them routinely in their practice and with time will most likely translate into lower cost procedures and better outcomes for patients in India, especially in geriatric healthcare.
