PESHAWAR: Doctors at the public sector Peshawar Institute of Cardiology have performed seven minimally invasive procedures to treat the narrowing of aortic valves in one day on patients, who were unable to undergo open heart surgery.

“We have set a world record by carrying out so many transcatheter aortic valve implantations in a single day,” head of the cardiology department at PIC Dr Abidullah told Dawn.

He credited all staff members of the institute for that “new milestone in valve replacements.”

Dr Abidullah said the patients were recovering after undergoing the minimally invasive procedure, which cost Rs3.5 in private centres but was performed at a lower rate at his institute.

Says all patients recovering after undergoing Tavis

He said the procedure, which took around 3-4 hours, involved repairing damaged aortic valves through a leg incision without opening the chest.

The head of the department said the narrowing of the heart valve - aortic stenosis – was a serious cardiac condition, which was traditionally treated with open heart surgery.

He said Tavi was replacing a diseased heart valve with an artificial valve without opening the chest.

Dr Abidullah said such patients were very symptomatic with shortness of breath, chest pain and syncope, a loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain.

He said the PIC had established itself as the leading centre in the country for performing that minimally invasive procedure.

“We started this [Tavi] programme in January 2022 on a small scale but our hard work, innovation and dedicated efforts have enabled us to provide this service on a large scale,” he said.

Consultant cardiologist Dr Ali Raza, who led the team for those seven procedures, said establishing the much needed cardiac services for the local and national population had been an extraordinary accomplishment.

He also said the PIC was the main centre training cardiologists from all over the country in Tavis.

Dr Raza, who joined the PIC in 2021, said he had started performing those procedures in collaboration with highly experienced faculty members to provide facilities to the patients in KP and other provinces.

“I have worked as a cardiologist in Manchester, UK, before taking up this assignment, to benefit people and train young doctors as part of the PIC’s mandate to launch cardiology services in district hospitals,” he said.

PIC medical director and dean Dr Shahkar Ahmad Shah said the institute was committed to providing excellent patient care.

“We have always facilitated the introduction of the latest cutting-edge procedures to improve patient care and will continue doing so,” he said.

Dr Shah said the 290-bed PIC had carried out around hundreds of heart procedures besides investigations, including angioplasty and angiographies, since its establishment in December 2020, with 95 per cent of them being under the government’s Sehat Card Plus health insurance programme.

“We have introduced minimally invasive cardiac surgeries to cater to the patients who are either unfit for open surgeries or have concerns about major cuts and large wounds caused by traditional open procedures,” he said.

The medical director said compared to open surgery, patients undergoing those procedures could expect less pain and discomfort, faster recovery and small scars.

“It [Tavi] is cosmetically better as well than open method,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2024