Complex heart surgery with world’s smallest heart pump saves 90-yr-old man at PGIMER

Gupta said that the patient was not fit for open heart surgery but at the same time the angioplasty procedure was also very complex and high-risk as the patient had heavily calcified left main trifurcation disease with a weak heart.

”In this procedure, we used the Impella device, which is a miniature heart pump that supports the patient vitals during the process of angioplasty,” said Yash Paul Sharma. The doctors explained that as the patient had heavily calcified coronaries they had to first use 3 different sized rotablator burrs followed by a shock wave (IVL) balloon to remove the large amount of calcium before the stents could be successfully implanted in the patient.

The procedure took four hours and the Impella device helped in keeping the patient stable during the entire procedure. The patient recovered well after the procedure and was discharged after two days. These kind of procedures have also been successfully performed in the past.

However without the use of new devices like the Impella, they used to be extremely high risk. ”We are happy that we at PGI can now use this device for such high-risk procedures and improve patient safety and outcomes,” added Sharma.