67-yr-old heart survives trauma of third bypass surgery

Modern expertise have made the surgery safer and helped achieve better results

It all began when Kalyan resident Ramgopal Agarwal felt a slight pain in his chest while walking uphill.

Having already undergone two bypass surgeries, the 67-year-old rushed to his cardiologist. After undergoing a stress test, Agarwal was given that diagnosis that he was most dreading — he needed a third coronary arterial bypass graft.

“We were apprehensive as he had already had two surgeries. However, there was no other way out as my father was surviving on a single artery, and that too was 70 per cent blocked,” said Agarwal’s chartered accountant son, Suresh.

Angioplasty and the use of stents were not an option for Agarwal.  Doctors said that the grafts from his previous surgeries were blocked and he was surviving on a single vein graft.

On September 3, Agarwal, a retired banker from Rajasthan, went ahead with his decision to go under the knife for the

third time.  He is currently recuperating at the Intensive Care Unit of the Bombay Hospital and will be discharged in a couple of days. “This surgery is done very rarely as the risk factor increases with age. There is also a fear among patients who have already had a bypass surgery, as there are chances of mortality during surgery,” said S Bhattacharya, cardiac surgeon at the Bombay Hospital who performed the nine-hour-long procedure on Agarwal.

“Modern medicine and surgical expertise have improved so much that second and third bypass surgeries are feasible. Patients should not hesitate to undergo a bypass surgery as the procedure has become safer and more effective,” said the cardiac surgeon, who last performed a similar bypass surgery for the third time on a patient two years ago. 

Agarwal had his first bypass surgery in 1990. The second was performed in 1999 and the third surgery was performed last week, by Bhattacharya.

The surgeon has performed the highest number of arterial grafts on a beating heart in the world — more than 10,000.

According to cardiac experts, there are several people in the city requiring a second or a third bypass surgery. “However, they do not opt for a surgery as they are scared,” said Bhattacharya.

“Besides, this kind of surgery needs skilled hands and a lot of experience. There are very few doctors who would take up the challenge of performing a third bypass surgery on a patient,” said Laxman Khadye, chief assistant surgeon.

“Previously, we used vein grafts from the leg and the radial Artery, which closes after 10 to 12 years. However, research has proved that the internal memory artery is the best graft. If used, the patient would not require a second and third surgery,” said Bhattacharya.

“Research is being conducted to halt the need for such repetitive procedures and give the patient freedom from intervention,” said the surgeon, while appealing to patients to not be afraid of going under the knife for a bypass surgery.