A city hospital undertook a complicated procedure and successfully fixed a two-chamber pacemaker on a 62-year-old Kenyan national, who had an artificial value.

Lucy Karanja, accompanied by her son Silas from Nakuru, Kenya, came two weeks ago to Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH) with complaints of multiple episodes of giddiness and difficulty in walking even a short distance. Lucy had already undergone a replacement of the right side heart valve in the US a couple of years ago.

She was referred to the Electro Physiology Department, with its complete infrastructure for heart rhythm management. Consultant Dr M Lawrance Jesuraj evaluated her and found that she was suffering from a very slow heart rate of less than 35 beats /min.

The medical management would have provided her only a short term relief, so Dr Jesuraj offered the option of a pacemaker to enhance the heart rate to have a better quality of life, a KMCH release said today. Although implantation of a permanent pacemaker is relatively common and carried out by fixing two wires inside the heart, Lucy had a unique problem of having already an artificial valve from her earlier surgery in the location where the pacing wires to be fixed, Dr Jesuraj said.

This proved a challenge for the medical team, which after a detailed discussion, decided to place the two-chamber pacemaker with one wire in the right atrium (upper chamber of the heart) and other one through the vein of the heart. The complex procedure took more than four hours at the cath lab and the patient was discharged within two days, and was comfortable enough to get on with her normal routine, Jesuraj said.

The doctors also appreciated Silas for being bold enough to bring his mother to the city all the way from Nairobi for the affordable and successful treatment.