Novel tech used to remove calcium from blood vessels in a patient

CHENNAI: In a first of it's kind, the procedure to remove calcium from heart blood vessels was performed at a private hospital in the city using a new technology of Orbital Atherectomy recently. The Orbital Atherectomy is a new procedure that has been introduced in the country and Dr Sengottuvelu G, leading interventional cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals performed the first case of novel orbital atherectomy procedures in patients with heavily calcified coronary arteries.

One patient among them was an elderly patient who had done bypass surgery 15 years ago and was having chest pain at rest and had severely calcified tortuous left anterior descending artery. The Patient was at high risk for redo coronary artery bypass surgery and anatomy of his vessels was unsuitable for bypass surgery. He underwent successful ablation of calcium using diamond back orbital atherectomy device with slow and at high speeds.

"Calcified lesions are difficult, challenging subsets to treat as they are hard and conventional balloon angioplasty do not work. There are several tools available to treat these hard blocks such as rotational atherectomy, intravascular lithotripsy, specialised balloons etc. Rotational atherectomy was only option available for several years," explains Dr Sengottuvelu.

He said that orbital atherectomy is a novel therapy used for opening up calcified blocks before stenting. It operates by creating micro fractures in the calcium and breaking it down further through the device, that can be operated at low and high speeds and is decided based on the anatomy of the patient.

The availability of this device adds another option to treat these calcified blocks. It is particularly helpful in large vessels with long calcified eccentric lesions. The device has a learning curve and operator needs to be trained. The patient recovered well and is being followed up.