Mangaluru: KMC Hospitals Mangaluru has performed a rare procedure on a critical heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI) patient. This unique interventional cardiology technique called Thrombus Aspiration from coronary vessels was performed under the expertise of Dr. Narasimha Pai D, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, KMC Hospitals and his team on Suneetha Achary, a 68-year-old patient who suffered a heart attack.

Dr Pai D, who performed this procedure, said after an angiogram on the patient, repeat angiogram revealed heavy clot burden.

“This patient required thrombus aspiration. However the hardware required for the same is costly. With inputs from the cathlab team headed by Ganesh, we decided to go ahead with this novel technique of thrombus aspiration using guide catheters successfully. By doing so, we avoided the use of costly equipment and hence the cost of treatment,” he added.

While this procedure is not new to India, very few trained cardiologists are known to perform this. “In this case, stent was not found essential after clot aspiration.

The patient has had a good recovery and was discharged last week. This technique is very useful in young patients or in those with MI who have large clot burden and are not ideal case for stent implant. It also has immediate relief with no extra cost of costly thrombus aspiration hardware,” adds Dr Pai.