Advanced Cath Lab for faster cardiac treatment launched at Fortis

Bengaluru: Fortis Hospital, Cunningham Road, on Thursday inaugurated Karnataka's most advanced state-of-the-art Cath Lab for faster intervention in interventional cardiology and cardio vascular procedures.

The Cath Lab was inaugurated by Dr C.N. Manjunath, Head of Cardiology, Director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research in the presence of Dr Manish Mattoo, Vice President, Fortis Healthcare, Dr Vivek Jawali, Chairman, Cardiac Sciences and Hospital Executive Council, Fortis Hospitals, Bangalore along with other senior cardiologists.

The high-end version of Philips AZURION 7F12 will help cardiologists and cardiac surgeons optimize and standardize system set-up for all kinds of cases; from routine to advanced procedures and help safeguard the consistency of interventional procedures along with reduction in preparation errors with better access to detailed areas of a patient's cardiovascular anatomy. The Cath Lab will also allow patients to have more effective and less invasive treatment options with superior care and low radiation exposure.

Dr Manjunath said, "Cardiac Cath Lab is the work horse and pillar of cardiology services. Cardiovascular diseases particularly, heart attack is the number one killer both in our State as well as in India. This accounts for nearly 25% of all deaths. The Coronary Artery Diseases (heart attack related disease) is becoming more prevalent among young and middleaged population which is a worrying factor."

"Smoking, stress, physical inactivity, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, changing food habits and lifestyles are the important risk factors. The heart attack treatment is always time driven, so that maximum benefit and survival rate will be more, if they are treated in the golden hour, i.e., within the first 3-4 hours of onset of symptoms. For every 30 minutes of delay in initiating treatment for heart attack, the relative risk of death increases by 7%. Angioplasty and stenting procedure is the best method of opening the blockages of the arteries. This is where Cardiac Cath Lab plays a vital role.

Nearly 50% of the cardiac diseases which were earlier treated by surgery, now they can be treated in the Cardiac Cathlab by performing interventional procedures viz., angioplasty, valvuloplasty, percutaneous valve replacement, pacemaker implantation and closure of heart holes and treatment of abnormal heart beats."

Dr Manish Mattoo, said, "Fortis Hospital has a three-decade legacy of delivering the best patient care and meeting the healthcare needs of Karnataka. Situated in the heart of the city with cardiac care at its core, the hospital is now technologically at par with best cardiac centres in the world and well equipped to address the increasing number of cardiac related deaths. We are the only hospital in Karnataka to have the latest version of this Cath Lab system. We will continue to focus on providing affordable and high-quality care with latest technology to our patients."

Dr Vivek Jawali said, "Witnessing the growing incidence of cardiac ailments and related fatalities in the recent past among the younger individuals particularly, we need to be technologically more equipped to be able to treat the patients more efficiently and save more lives. The latest version of Cath Lab will now make it possible for this hospital located in the centre of the to attend patients with a rapid speed for managing the emergency angioplasties for acute heart attacks in the golden hours. The installation of this technology will make our unit on Cunningham Road a highly desired destination for patients with heart attacks."

Nitin Stephen Abel, Business Leader, Image Guided Therapy, Philips Indian Subcontinent said: "At Philips, we believe that meaningful clinical innovations have the potential to transform people's health and well-being. We would like to thank Fortis Hospital for continuing to place their trust in Philips."