Doctors at NICVD use new technique to perform heart surgery

Doctors at the national heart institute have conducted a heart surgery without cutting chest bones in a minimally invasive procedure alternative to open heart surgery, first of its kind in any government facility.

The condition of the 12-year-old girl, Nupur, is stable now, Dr Asraful Hoque Sium, an assistant professor of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), who led the team, told bdnews24.com on Monday.

She was a patient of atrial septal defect (ASD), a congenital defect in which a baby is born with a hole in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart.

The 10 doctors’ team led by Dr Sium did the surgery Sunday.

“The patient is recovering,” he said, adding that they are ready to offer this “less painful and cost-effective” procedure to anyone needing heart surgery.

“Manpower, equipment and budget are always challenging in government hospitals. But still we can manage,” he said, adding that he is ready to train others.

“I learnt it out of my own interest and took costly training from abroad. But I can show others the procedure.”

This procedure is called laparoscopic heart surgery, a minimally invasive cardiac surgery in which surgeons create a small hole without cutting the chest bone and operate on the patient, Sium said.

“You have to have confidence to learn and do this. Hands-on-training are the key to learning. If you’re sent abroad for training, you will not be able to touch the patient. You will just see. But here you can touch and operate on the patient under the guidance of a trained surgeon.”

The National Heart Foundation Hospital was the first that started this surgery. But they cannot offer the service regularly, he said.