India’s second Shock wave intravascular lithotripsy performed in record time of 35 minutes

By Dr Bhardwaj, Director, Saroj Group of Hospitals.

An 80-year-old Male patient with severely limiting angina and 90% stenosis in the LAD coronary artery was successfully treated with the latest Shock wave intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) in a record time of 35 minutes at Saroj cardiac sciences- Indian Spinal Injury Centre, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.

Shock wave intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) is the latest technology, recently launched in India and this is only the second case to be successfully treated in Delhi.

“This device delivers localised pulsatile high-speed sonic pressure waves which pass through the soft tissue and selectively disrupt calcium. Disruption of calcium facilitates the delivery, expansion and apposition of the scent to vessel wall resulting in good procedural outcomes. The procedure time in our patient was just 35 minutes and the patient could be discharged the next day of procedure in stable condition.” Said Dr. Aseem Dhall, Director and Head Cardiology Department, Saroj cardiac sciences- Indian Spinal Injury Centre, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy is a novel procedure which brings hope for those suffering from an advanced form of coronary artery disease (CAD) having angina or heart attack in which the blockage becomes very hard due to deposit of calcium. This happens in 20-25% of the patients undergoing angioplasty and stenting especially those who are old, diabetic, have chronic kidney disease, have long standing blockages or who have undergone previous bypass surgery. This technique is a major advancement over the previous techniques used for such hard blockages like ultra-high-pressure balloons or rotatory drills which are difficult to use and carry risk of rupturing the artery.

While the traditional methods have been in use to cut calcium like cutting balloons, high pressure balloons and rotational coronary atherectomy, but they pose a risk of complications and may lead to extensive vessel dissection, rupture or even perforation of coronary arteries which may be fatal for the patient. Also, these methods are ineffective in dealing with eccentric and deep calcifications

“Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) of calcified coronary arteries continues to be one of the most challenging interventions in the field of cardiology. These calcified and rock-hard lesions are associated with difficulties in delivery of balloon and stem, impaired stent expansion and apposition, resulting in adverse procedural outcomes.” Added Dr Dhall

Dr. Bhardwaj, Director Saroj group of hospitals and Dr Chhabra, Director Indian spinal injuries centre, vacant kunj congratulated Dr Aseem Dhall to be among the first few in the country to use this novel technique and make it commercially viable for future use in our country.

We always remain at the forefront of bringing cutting edge technology for better clinical results. This is yet another opportunity when our world class team of cardiologists applied a novel technique to improve upon success rate of a stenting procedure. This is going to provide much credible patient experience post treatment. Our patient experience remains our core objective and such events help us move towards achieving greater heights in this regard”.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)