Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMC&H) here claims to be the first hospital in North India to go for 3-D Echo surgeries of heart.

Revealing this, Dr GS Wander, head of the Hero Heart Centre at the hospital, said, “We have operated upon more than 10 patients through this technique in last six months with 100% success rate. DMCH is the only hospital in north India to have 3-D Echo technique and best thing is that patient does not have to spend extra money for it and is very beneficial for the patients, especially for those who suffer from valve-defects.”

Dr Wander said through 3-D echo procedure, the defects of heart are repaired during the surgery itself, before bringing out the patient out of anesthesia. The 3-D echo system shows the heart surgeon the posteriors, anterior as well as lateral structure from inside and this way, the patient is assessed properly as if his defects have been repaired during surgery on not. If there is any defect seen, it is repaired during the same surgery. So this procedure saves a patient from another surgery.

Dr Wander said that heart surgery was a team work of mainly three people, including heart surgeon, anaesthiologist and cardiologist. In all this, the role of anaesthesioloist is very important. He said that an association has come up namely North Zone Association of Cardio Thoracic Anaesthesiologists (NZACTA).

It is the new regional chapter of Indian Association of Cardiovascular Thoracic Anaesthesiologists (IACTA), and was formed about two months ago with the mandate to spread awareness regarding cardiac anaesthesia practice.