Dr Anbarasu Mohanraj - Heart Surgery

  Heart Valve Repair - F.A.Qs What is the common surgerical treatment for Valvular Heart Disease? The treatment for Valvular Heart diseases starts with Medical treatment once a diagnosis is made. When the disease becomes critical, your doctors advice surgical treatment of the problem. Valves can be dilated with balloons called Balloon Valvotomy if the valvular heart disease is straightforward. If there is severe disease, your Heart Team may decide on surgical intervention. Traditionally Valvular Heart disease was treated with Surgical Replacement of the valve. This involves removing your own native valve and replacing it with a synthetic valve. What are the recent developments in Surgery for Valvular Heart Disease? Valve Repair and Percutaneous Replacement are the recent advances. In Valve Repair, your surgeon makes use of the tissues in your own valve which is diseased and repairs the valve to a perfect condition. Though technically challenging, valve repair yields excellent long term

Coronary Bypass Operation - F.A.Qs  How risky is it to undergo a Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery ?(CABG).  The risk of Coronary Bypass Operation is very minimal. In a patient with Good Heart Function and no major associated risks like Kidney or Brain issues, the risk of Bypass surgery is less than half a percentage (0.5%)  In case the patient has a poor Heart Function because of a previous Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack) or if patients have very poor diabetic control or associated Renal issues with high Sr Creatinine or a previous Neurological problems, then the risk of Bypass Operation goes up and the Surgical team will explain the risks involved with the surgery. What is the normal course of events during a Bypass operation? Patients are usually admitted the day before the Operation. The Surgical team, Anaesthetist and the Nursing teams brief you about the risks involved in the surgery and the outcomes. Please have a light meal the night before the surgery. The team will inform y

 Mitral Valve Repair and not Valve Replacement When it comes to Heart Valve Surgery, the common belief is that heart valves are usually replaced. The replacement of heart valve is done with artificial valves. It's either a Mechanical valve (aka) Metal valve or Biological valve (aka) Tissue valve. The  advantage of a Mechanical valve is that, it's durability is quite good. But patients with a Mechanical valve implanted in them need to be on lifelong blood thinning tablets like Acitrom or Warfarin. Managing these blood thinning tablets is quite tough and needs very close monitoring.    PT & INT test is to be done at least once in a month and the bleeding and blood clot formations due to these drugs is very high, especially in a country like ours where the uniform access to quality health care is difficult.  The survival of patients with heart valve replaced is quite poor due to the anti-coagulation related complications and nearly 50%  don't survive more than 6-8 years. T