Health:- Artificial heart pump helps save lives of heart attack patients

An artificial heart pump driven by cutting edge technology is proving
handy in saving the lives ofpatients in near-death situations
following a massive heart attack.
The Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) equipment can put a
patient on artificial support for as long as a month by sustaining
oxygen supply and blood circulation to the heart andother vital organs
such as brain, kidney and liver even when the patient's normal heart
is not beating. It gives much needed time for the vital organs to
recover and function normally before a primary angioplasty can bedone
on patients who havehad a debilitating heart attack.
The heart failure team at Fortis Malar Hospital told a press
conference on Tuesday that they had used ECMO to save several lives of
heart attack victimswho had suffered extensive heart muscle damage and
arterial blocksin the past few months. The ECMO machine prevented
death and provided more time to evaluate options such as angioplasty,
heart transplant or implantable artificial heart.
Doctors cited a recent case in which a 56-year-old patient was brought
in a state of circulatory collapseafter a massive heart attack. Until
recently, doctors wouldn't have given much of a chance for the patient
who had suffered extensive heart muscle damage, had low blood pressure
and diabetes-triggered elevated blood glucose levels. However, the
ECMO unit was mobilised within half an hour and the patient's blood
circulation to the vital organs restoredeven though the normal heart
was not beating. Subsequently, cardiologistsRavi Kumar and Madan Mohan
performed an angioplasty in the Cathlab to further improve blood
circulation.
Dr. K. R. Balakrishnan, chief cardiac surgeon, said massive heart
attack usually had a high mortality risk even if a patient reaches a
tertiary care centre alive. Besides, cardiogenic shock can occurany
time after a heart attack and carries a mortality rate of 90 per cent.
Even emergency angioplasty may not work in cardiogenic shock as in
most cases the heart muscle does not recover fast enough to pump
oxygen and blood to the vital organs.
Dr. K.G. Suresh Rao, chief of critical care, said the ECMO technology
could also be used in patients with badlydamaged lungs as in acute
H1N1 (swine flu) infections.
Though an ECMO intervention could cost about Rs.1.50 lakh, doctors
believe that its life-saving benefit far outweighs the cost.
The next step could be equipping select ambulances with the ECMO
machine so that more lives would not be lost to the delays in reaching
a heart attack patient to hospital, doctors said.

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