A 50-year-old man suffering from Stanford Type A Aortic Dissection was successfully operated upon by the Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH) here.

According to Dr Prashant Vaijayanth, Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at KMCH, the patient N R Kumarasamy was admitted at KMCH after he suffered severe back pain on 22 October.

“Preliminary tests revealed a major tear in the main blood vessel that originates from the heart. A CT Aortogram was done, which revealed a complicated Stanford Type A Aortic dissection in which the major blood vessel that originates from the heart and supplies blood to the whole body is torn from the inside,” said the surgeon.

He further added that it had extended to both the artery supplying blood to the brain and down to involve the arteries supplying blood to the liver, the left kidney and the intestine, and needed immediate emergency surgical intervention failing which would have been fatal.

“He was extremely sick and had kidney dysfunction. After initial stabilization he was taken up for emergency high risk open heart surgery. He was connected to the heart lung machine and his body temperature was reduced to 16o C (normal being 37o C). His circulation was stopped for about 45 minutes during which his aorta was replaced and aortic valve was repaired along with hemiarch replacement,” added Dr Prashanth.

He further stated that the patient had a bypass operation to the right heart artery as it had a stent with significant narrowing, and then was gradually taken off from the heart lung machine.

The patient was discharged six days after the surgery and was in a stable condition, according to a release from KMCH.

Dr Nalla G Palaniswami, Chairman of KMCH, said that the hospital had performed more than 10 such cases in 2016 alone.