Beaming minimal invasive heart surgery patients after surgery with Dr HS Bedi and the cardiac team.
Ludhiana, April 25, 2013: Joginder Kaur (72) resident of Moti Bagh Ludhiana, Balwinder Singh (42) resident of Payal Ludhiana and Master Balbir Singh (16) resident of Moga - all have one thing in common . They were all operated upon by a minimally invasive technique called Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery – MICS - in the Christian Medical College & Hospital in Ludhiana.
Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Head of Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery - at CMC & H – said that in conventional heart the heart is approached by a long cut in the center of the chest. This has the disadvantage of cosmesis as the scar is visible. In MICS the scar is just 6-8 cm long (vs 6-8 inches in the conventional surgery). Also the scar is at the side of the chest and is not visible with normal clothes. Also the recovery, need for blood and pain level is much less in MICS. Dr Bedi has earlier worked at the St Vincents Hospital in Sydney where he has conducted a number of complex heart surgeries. Dr Bedi said that MICS was first done in Punjab by him in Punjab in 1997 (patient Shyam Sunder of Batala) and since then has been done in a number of cases. Now with further modifications the technique is being applied in more patients. In fact Dr Bedi’s name figures in the Limca Book of World Records for minimally invasive heart surgery. What was unique was that all these 3 patients had different types of heart surgery on consecutive days. Joginder Kaur and Balwinder Singh had bypass surgeries of the major arteries of the heart with arterial grafts, while Balbir Singh had replacement of his heart valve. Joginder Kaur was very happy with her surgery. She has had relatives who have undergone heart surgery by the midline incision and she felt that her recovery was much better than theirs.
Under the expert supervision of the Cardiac Anesthesia team – Dr Shital Garg and Dr Melchi Singh – anesthesia was given. A strict checklist based protocol is used in these patients with a detailed plan. The plan worked superbly in all 3 patients
The other members of the cardiac team involved in this marathon surgery were Dr A Joseph , Dr Anish , Dr Jerry, Dr Amol, Dr Sheriff, Dr Swati, Dr Puliyelli, Dr Junish Bagga and Dr Amrit Kaur . The heart lung machine in the valve patient was handled by Jairus and William.
Dr Abraham G Thomas – Director of CMC & H – emphasised that with minimal access heart surgeries patients have a better recovery. These are being done routinely in CMC. This is possible because of the excellent infrastructure and faculty of CMC. He told that Dr Bedi is a pioneer in this having conducted the first such surgery in Punjab in 1997. He said that CMC is committed to bring International level cardiac care to the doorsteps of the people of this region.