First port-hole heart surgery under Ayushman Bharat

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, December 29

After having performed the country’s first heart bypass surgery under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, a team of doctors at the department of cardiac surgery at the Rohtak PGIMS have now performed the first-ever port-hole open-heart surgery under the scheme.

Prof SS Lohchab, head of the department, said a 28-year-old woman from Rohtak district had a hole of 3 cm in her heart. “Traditionally, for performing an open-heart surgery to repair such a big hole, the sternum (breast bone) is split, leading to a big scar in the midline of the chest, which looks ugly. In the port-hole surgery, only a 2-inch hole is made on the right side of the chest and the scar is not visible. Recovery is also fast with minimal blood loss,” he said.

He, however, maintained that the surgery, which was conducted on December 13, required high-tech gadgets and cutting-edge technology.

As per doctors, the patient underwent the port-hole heart surgery successfully and was discharged on the second post-operative day.

The surgery was done free of cost under the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Prof (Dr) OP Kalra, Vice Chancellor, University of Health Sciences, congratulated the team for the feat.