After a 55-year-old man, who had complaints of chest pain not subsiding with medication, when underwent diagnosis, indicated that he had a type B Aortic dissection (AD) with contained rupture.
Aortic dissection is a medical emergency in which due to a weakened wall, the aorta (a large blood vessel that carries blood from heart to the body) tears away and blood seeps out of its natural path into an abnormal path surrounding the weakened aorta.
Due to this, there is reduced blood flow to various organs. This leads to impaired perfusion resulting in high mortality and morbidity. Aortic dissection occurs mainly due to high BP and 40 per cent of people with AD died instantly and the risk of death increased one per cent for every hour if the diagnosis and surgical repairs were delayed.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference here on Thursday, a team of doctors headed by V. Sridhar, C. Vivek Bose, John Robert and Rohini Sridhar said that the Apollo Hospitals was well equipped that a keyhole surgery was performed in the groin through which catheters, wires and stents as small as 8 mm in diameter were taken into the vessel gently.
“The site where the inner lining of the aorta was torn was reinforced by a stent graft, which is basically a fabric tube, woven along a metal frame. This helps in strengthening the wall of the aorta preventing further complications and the procedure was called endovascular stent graft repair,” the doctors added.
Interventional radiology had a special role in emergency vascular conditions such as bleeding and blocked blood vessels, Dr. John Robert said and added that the patient was on the recovery path.