Heart ailments have been on the rise in the recent years. Most of the hospital admissions are due to heart diseases. Most common among the heart ailments is blockage in coronary arteries, which supply blood to heart, commonly called as Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).
Heart may also be affected by congenital heart defects that are present from birth in approximately 1% of new born babies; rheumatic heart disease, which affects the heart valves as they start leaking or become narrow, is on the decline as compared to past years.0.7 / 1000 children are affected by RHD. At present there are 1.4 million persons suffering from RHD in India.
Lot of advances is taking place in the management of heart ailments. A few years ago only treatment available for most of the heart ailments was either with medicines or surgery. Thanks to the newer development in the field of interventional cardiology, where most of the curative treatment is done through a very small cut (1mm) in groin or the wrist artery.
All these measures are being adopted to give maximum comfort to the patient with minimum risk. 26 years ago only treatment available for the blocked arteries was to surgically bypass the blockage.
But now many cases can be managed by a very simple procedure called Angioplasty. During Angioplasty a balloon is inflated in the blocked artery at the site of blockage and then a metal stent is fixed in the region to prevent vessel collapse.
Though this treatment is very simple and patient walks about after 12 hours & back to work after 48 hours, it carries risk of re-blockage in 15-20% of the cases, particularly in those suffering from Diabetes mellitus (Sugar problem).
However, with the availability of various medicated stents this problem has been overcome to a great extent though not totally abolished; re-blockage takes place in 4-7% of the cases, which is at par with the surgical results.
Furthermore due to availability of newer drugs to prevent the clotting of the blood there is further improvement in the long term results.
Besides coronary artery disease, interventional cardiological procedures now also find application in greater number of heart diseases like Rheumatic Valvular Heart Disease, Septal Defects and AMI.
These were earlier being treated with medication and surgery but can now days also be treated with Interventions.
This perfect harmony between technology skill and desire to serve humanity has created wonders and brought a revolution in the field of medicines.
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