'Heart failure device' implanted

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 12. Doctors in the Wockhardt Hospital here have succeeded in implanting the first "heart failure device" in a patient suffering from congestive cardiomyopathy.

According to a release from the hospital, the patient was suffering from the disease (which progressively weakens and enlarges the heart) since 1993, and all attempts to treat him had failed. The congestive cardiomyopathy of the patient, who complained of breathlessness, had reached a critical stage with the heart functioning at less than 15 per cent of its capacity.

Dr. Uday Khanolkar, interventional cardiologist, implanted in the patient a bi-ventricular permanent pacemaker, also known as heart failure device. A recent technology breakthrough, the device synchronises the functioning of the chambers of the heart. A conventional pacemaker synchronises only the atria and ventricle but does not synchrnoise the two ventricles.

The hospital authorities said that the patient's breathlessness had come down, and his activity level over the last few days had improved. The device would be helpful in improving the lifespan of patients diagnosed with congestive cardiomyopathy, in view of lack of an organised heart transplant mechanism.

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Section  : Southern States
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