Omega Hospital Goes to the 'Heart' of the Problem

Radio-frequency catheter Ablation has proved to be a boon for patients with rare heart disease and the good news is that the city has a centre with the technology to treat such ailments.

For the first time in the district, Omega Hospital here has been successful in treating two patients using the technique.

According to Dr K Mukund, director of the hospital, two patients aged 42 and 18 respectively were found to have a rare heart ailment as they used to suffer sudden loss of consciousness due to rapid heart beats which in medical terminology is called ‘Reentrant Tachycardia’. In such case the heart beats will be above 200 per minute.

Diognised by senior cardiologist Dr P S Bhat, the patients were advised to undergo catheter-based technique of radio-frequency ablation.

The operation, conducted at the hospital under the guidance of Dr Bhat, Mukund and Dr R L Kamath, went on for almost 4 hours involving the technique through which multiple catheters were passed through the femoral veins and right jugular vein into the heart and extra communicatory pathways. Doctors opine that this is minimally invasive procedure, which does not need general anaesthesia and patients need to stay in the hospital for a day or two.