Topmost military doctors successfully perform first MitraClip heart surgery in armed forces at Army's RR hospital

Top military doctors of the country performed the first MitraClip heart surgery in the armed forces on a junior commissioned officer (JCO) who had developed a heart failure due to infection.

The surgery was performed by the most senior doctors of the defence fraternity including Director General Armed Forces Medical Services Vice Admiral Rajat Datta and DGMS (Air) Air Marshal Prashant Bhardwaj, both renowned cardiologists.

"The first-ever MitraClip in the armed forces and government sector in India was implanted in a patient at Army Hospital (R&R), on February 26. The procedure was performed on a 48-year-old serving Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO), who had developed end-stage heart failure as sequelae of viral infection," Army officials told ANI.

The JCO had irreversible heart muscle dysfunction compounded by a major leak in the heart valve which entailed a prohibitive risk of open-heart surgery and a ubiquitously dismal course, they said.

The team of cardiologists included Air Commodore Keshavamurthy and they alleviated the leak in the valve by inserting a device that mitigated the leak by a pinhole intervention through the groin. The patient has made a gratifying recovery.

A senior military doctor said the procedure is MitraClip and it is required when a heart fails increases in size and finally the valves become loose allowing the blood to leak.

"In this procedure, the loose mitral valve in failing heart is tightened by clipping it using the Mitra Clip. This brings in quick relief to the patient who can walk out of the hospital in a day or two," said the doctor.

"Before this technique, the repair was done in open heart surgery which was highly risky in a critical patient and involved prolonged hospital stay. The clipping is done through a pinhole entry in the leg vein. It is a highly skilled procedure and only a handful of cardiac centres have the technical expertise of doing this," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )