PESHAWAR: The public sector Peshawar Institute of Cardiology on Saturday become the country’s first hospital to carry out coronary angioplasty using the new technology RotaPro rotational atherectomy procedure, which saves time and delivers better results.

According to Dr Abidullah, head of the cardiology department at the PIC, a team of cardiologists successfully operated on a 60-year-old patient using RotaPro.

He told Dawn that more patients would undergo that procedure, which was meant to treat patients with hard and narrow heart vessels, which caused chest pain and heart attacks.

“In Europe and developing countries, this new technique has been used for around a year. It has produced highly encouraging results and therefore, the PIC introduced it to improve patient care,” he said.

Dr Abidullah of PIC says RotaPro saves time, delivers excellent results

Dr Abidullah said the institute had eight cardiologists, including four trained in the UK, and had so far performed 14,000 angiographies and over 1,400 heart surgeries free of charge under the government’s Sehat Card Plus health insurance scheme.

He said RotaPro was introduced and patented by the US-based company Boston Scientific as the latest version on the Rotablation technology to treat the “hard narrowing” of heart vessels.

“Boston Scientific has chosen us [PIC] as the first centre in Pakistan to launch its Rotapro system in light of our success stories, especially the lowest mortality rate,” he said.

The department head said modern medical technology could be used by a cardiologist single-handedly and that, too, in a short span of time without any pain or difficulty to patients without anaesthesia.

He said RotaPro was successful in shaving off the calcium within coronary arteries.

“This advanced procedure has the minimum complication rate but very positive results,” he said.

Prof Abidullah said the novel technique would benefit patients requiring treatment for calcified coronary lesions.

When contacted, PIC medical director Prof Shahkar Ahmad Shah said the institute had already introduced standing operating procedures for angiography on complex cases but that required more manpower and consumed a lot of time.

He said the new technology RotaPro was far better than others.

Prof Shah said since the start of operations in Dec 2020,the PIC had achieved many milestones.

He said early last year, the institute’s doctors performed the first-ever Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation on people not fit for open heart surgeries.

“Since then, we have done many procedures with results in line with international standards,” he said.

The medical director said a single procedure cost Rs3 million but the PIC did it free of charge.

He said the public sector 290-bedded facility had been carrying out heart surgeries and investigation, including angioplasty and angiographyes, with 95 per cent of them being covered by the government’s SCP programme.

“Last year, the PIC was approved by independent auditors for Geneva-based International Standardisation Organisation certification. We hope to get accreditation by the Joint Commission International this year,” he said.

Prof Shah said the institute strictly adhered to the rules of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Procurement Regulatory Authority for procuring medicines, surgical disposable items and other stuff due to the sensitive nature of procedures.

He said that patients received highly advanced services for which the institute had got well- qualified staff members as well as modern equipment and machines.

“Amid rising patient numbers, we [PIC] continue to expand services,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023