A 61-year-old woman was admitted to Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad, for a heart attack emergency. Upon further diagnosis, the doctors discovered that the patient, Reana Shah (name changed), had severe chest pain, and bi-ventricular failure, and alleviated cardiac enzymes, with her heart functioning reduced to 30 percent.

Following an angiography, she was taken in for cardiac surgery by a team of doctors led by Senior Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeon Dr. Utpal Shah. During the surgery, the doctors discovered that the patient was suffering from Diffuse Coronary Artery Disease (DCAD).

DCAD is a challenging heart disease, wherein multiple or extended continuous plaques can be found in a patient’s heart’s arteries.

The surgery became more challenging when the doctors discovered not one but five diffuse arteries. This was when the team of doctors decided that a simple Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) would not help the patient in the long run. Hence, they performed five endarterectomies, the surgical removal of the inner lining or any obstructive artery deposits, and four CABG at one go. 

This is not the first time that doctors from Apollo Ahamadabad have performed such surgeries. Some time ago they performed first a kind, live transplant surgery in India. Read More about it here. It was a high-risk and one-of-a-kind heart surgery. The length of the five blockages ranged between 3 and 9 cm. Following the surgery, the patient recovered successfully and was discharged recently. Before the surgery, walking even a few steps was painful for the patient but post-surgery she is able to walk and do chores with ease.