Beating heart bypass as effective as stopped heart surgery: docs

Doctors across multiple hospitals in India have asserted that performing coronary bypass surgery on beating hearts is just as effective as surgery performed on the organ when stopped.

Announcing the findings of a study performed by seven cardiothoracic surgeons at six private institutions over 13 months, Dr. Lokeswar Sajja of Star Hospitals said both type of surgeries had similar outcomes. A total of 239 patients were part of the research, and had undergone either of the bypass surgeries between March 2016 and April 2017. The findings were presented at the American Association for Thoracic Surgeons last month.

“We have shown that graft patency, risks of death, kidney problems and paralytic stroke after surgery are similar for Indian patients in either of the surgeries,” Dr. Sajja, the study’s principal investigator, told The Hindu.

The findings, according to Dr. Sajja, overturn the prevailing notion in the West that bypass surgery on a beating heart can be less effective than surgery on stopped hearts.

Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery (CABG), commonly referred to as bypass surgery, has traditionally been performed after stopping the heart and connecting the body’s circulation to a heart-lung machine (HLM). The HLM, referred by doctors as ‘the pump’, helps the body meet its oxygen and nutrient requirement by taking over the functioning of heart and lungs for the duration of the surgery.

In the case of surgery without a pump, the heart is not stopped. The surgeon proceeds to bypass the blocked coronary artery with a graft, which is a blood vessel obtained from another part of the part like the chest or the leg.

According to Dr. Sajja, and his team comprising Dr. Kunal Sarkar (Kolkata), Dr. Gopichand Mannam and Dr. Krishna Kumar (Hyderabad), Dr. P. Chandrashekar (Coimbatore), Dr. Sanjeeth Peter (Gujarat) and Dr. Anvay Mulay (Mumbai), nearly 60% of the bypass surgeries being performed in India every year are off-bump surgeries on beating heart.