Hyderabad, September 19: Koneti Nageswara Rao, the chief pediatric cardiologist, and his team at the Nimmagadda CARE Children’s Heart Institute claim to have developed a new procedure to close the holes in the heart of children using a device (umbrella) and easily available guiding catheters.
The procedure is done by puncturing the femoral artery and the hole will be entered from the left ventricle. The doctors inform that the fluoroscopy radiation time is less than 10 minutes without any significant complications.
The procedure can be done on babies weighing less than 7.5 kg and reportedly costs less than Rs 1 lakh. The patient can be discharged within 24 hours, the doctors said. The team has successfully done the procedure in 24 cases. Their first 11 case series has been accepted for publication in a US journal .The doctors will be applying for a patent soon.
–Agencies