Doctors have given a new lease of life to a 54-year-old man with 90 per cent blockage within a previous stent. They performed the Excimer Laser Coronary Atherectomy (ECLA), a state-of-the-art surgery for complex angioplasties, re-blockages and clots in arteries. The operation was done at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital. It’s a technique where laser light is used to remove blockages in coronary arteries that are traditionally labelled ‘not treatable’ with conventional angioplasty.
Doctors said the patient was admitted with a recent onset of exertional breathlessness and chest discomfort. He also had a history of uncontrolled diabetes and previous angioplasty, where one stent was deployed in one of his coronary arteries.
A doctor said the man’s coronary angiogram showed 90 per cent blockage in a stent, which was the cause of his symptoms. “His echocardiogram showed that his heart function was weak with an Ejection Fraction of 25%, which is considered normal only above 55 per cent. This was due to the lack of blood supply due to blockage in the coronary artery,” the doctor said.
The ECLA procedure, including deployment of stent under image/camera guidance using optical coherence tomography was done under local anaesthesia and was performed by Dr Nimit Shah, consultant interventional cardiologist, cardiac sciences at the hospital. The patient was mobile immediately after the procedure.
Dr Shah said excimer laser is an important tool that allows the completion of difficult and complicated cases. In this procedure, a catheter is inserted into an artery over the wire that emits advanced laser light rays to soften tough blockages in its path, the ones which could not have been treated with conventional angioplasty.
“We are proud to bring state-of-the-art ECLA for treating complex coronary angioplasties and now have this technology available to all our patients at Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital,” said Dr Tarang Gianchandani, CEO of the hospital.
