Emergency cathlab procedure saves life of 36-year-old stroke patient

CHENNAI: At least 821 Cathlab procedures were conducted at the biplane Cathlab at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital in 2022, including 265 major procedures and 556 minor procedures.

In a first, at a government hospital, a patient with complete recanalization had 90 per cent recovery in the shortest duration of time after an emergency procedure. Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian met the team of doctors who performed the surgery and honoured them. Routinely in other government hospitals, patients will be managed with IV thrombolysis and recovery will be at a slow pace but the procedure helped with faster recovery comparatively.

The 36-year-old male patient was taken to the emergency department on January 24, 2023 with complaints of left sided upper limb and lower limb weakness for about two hours. The doctors examined the weakness of left upper and lower limb. The CT brain showed acute stroke with a clot in the blood vessel in the brain.

Doctors at the hospital said that since patient was taken to the hospital within stroke golden period window, he was to emergency for mechanical thrombectomy procedure. The digital subtraction angiography showed blocked artery before the procedure, which was completely recanalized after the procedure. The patient was recanalized in about 90 minutes of being brought to the emergency. He had a recovery of about 90 per cent and is now able to walk and move his limbs. The medicos said that due to this emergency procedure there is significant improvement in quality of life and disability adjusted life year.

The Health Minister said that while the procedure costs around Rs 6-8 lakhs in a private hospital, it was performed free of cost at the hospital under the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. The biplane cathlab was set up at the cost of Rs 5 crore at the hospital and it has helped to benefit more than 800 people in a year and the hospital has trained personnel in Interventional radiology through endovascular and interventional radiology super speciality training programme.

Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital is the only government institution where different varieties of interventional radiology procedures are done, such as aneurysm coiling, flow diverter, Carotico cavernous fistula embolization , AVM embolization, Stent assisted aneurysm, and balloon assisted coiling etc.