Five cardiac patients treated without surgery

Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda, performs five complex Multi vessel CTO procedures, at a two day 'CTO –PCIWorkshop' Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda, hosted a two day 'CTO –PCI Workshop' for Chronic Total Occlusions (CTO) recently. Renowned CTO specialist Prof. Masahiko Ochiai, Northern Yokohama Hospital, Japan and Dr V Surya Prakasa Rao, HOD, cardiology, Apollo Hospitals, performed a complex multi vessel CTO – PCI procedure on five critical patients live.

These patients couldn't get succor from earlier treatments and the cardiology team diagnosed the need for these patients to undergo CTO procedure. The patients have since recovered and have been discharged. The workshop was attended by cardiologists from the two Telugu states.

CTO procedure is performed on patients with complete blockage in their artery. A third of the patients with blocks in their coronary arteries have at least one artery that is completely blocked. Historically, cardiologists have been able to open up arteries that have up to 95 per cent blockage.

However, CTO is a 100 per cent blockage of a coronary artery, with hardened tissue existing for several months or years. Conventionally surgery was the option as these blocks are difficult to penetrate using routine guide wires and balloon catheters. In the recent years, highly skilled new non-invasive interventional procedure called CTO technique is being performed to clear such blocks thereby avoiding surgery.