NoBlood

August 25, 2007



Dr Vivek Jawali, chief cardiovascular surgeon along with his team at Wockhardt Heart Hospital at Bangalore have set a global benchmark by performing the first coronary bypass surgery along with an aortic valve replacement without using general anaesthesia or ventilator support while the patient was on a heart lung machine.The technique of high thoracic epidural analgesia is a highly precision based methodology which involves injection of micro doses of local anaesthetic in the epidural space around the spinal cord which anaesthetises only the chest region while the rest of the system is fully awake.

This technique is a boon for patients having multifaceted medical complications, required a bypass surgery and an aortic valve replacement. His lung condition did not permit the use of a ventilator and he was high risk for general anaesthesia. With his surgery being rejected at various centres before he came to us, his best chance of survival was an open heart surgery without general anaesthesia, in other words, an awake heart surgery. We give him that chance using the technique of high thoracic epidural analgesia and a new direction in heart surgery has been unveiled,' recounted Dr Jawali.

Dr Vivek Jawali and Dr Murali Chakravarthy, chief cardiac anaesthetist of Wockhardt Heart Institute are the national pioneers of awake coronary bypass surgery on beating heart through full chest incisions and over the last few years have performed more than 500 awake heart surgeries and have ten international publications on this topic in the leading journals of the world to their credit.

Skynews of UK profiles in this film a patient undergoing a painless awake heart cardiac bypass surgery that is safe for patients who are high risk for general anaesthesia. and this now throws open the possibility of cardiac surgery for many patients (many in their most productive years) who are termed inoperable,' explained Dr Jawali. wockhardt Heart Hospital at Bangalore, India is now a preferred destination for cardiac patients not only in India but also from all over the US, UK, Canada, Middle East and Africas. It is also a teaching center for clinicians from the sub-continent. For more details visit www.whosp.com

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Sharon Grant
Editorial Team