High BP & back pain a fatal combo

Sixty-three-year-old Suresh Sheth, who suffers from high blood pressure, kept ignoring the repeated spasms of pain in his back and chest.

He thought the pains were only symptoms of acidity and problems related to old age. Little did the Borivli resident realise that they were his body’s way of trying to warn him about an impending threat to his life. When the pains took hold of his life, he finally consulted a cardiologist.

After several tests, he was told that a huge clot had formed in his aorta — the largest artery in the body — following the rupture of an atheroma (a fatty deposit in the inner lining of the artery).

If such a problem is not treated on time, says a cardiac surgeon, the aorta can rupture, resulting in death.
“Most such patients with high blood pressure ignore back pain, thinking that it would go away after a few days, and just pop painkillers. But it may be a symptom of a heart problem,” explains Dr Anvay Mulay, cardiothoracic surgeon, Ambani Hospital.

Dr Vimal Someshwar, an interventional cardiologist from the hospital, says doctors there see 18 to 20 such cases in a year. Such patients have to undergo an endovascular stent graft surgery. “The stent helps to plug the leak in the aorta.”
Sheth’s surgery was a little more complicated because the stent blocked an artery adjacent to the aorta that supplied blood to the left arm.

“It became necessary to create a small passage in the tubular stent to allow free flow of blood,” says Dr Someshwar.

A team of doctors, which included Dr Mulay, devised an in-house technique to make a small hole in the stent, which was then strengthened by a wire sutured around the hole.

Another stent was then placed in the artery supplying blood to the left arm. “This ensured that a constant supply of blood reached the arm,” adds Dr Mulay.

Earlier, such patients had to undergo high-risk surgeries. But an endovascular stent graft surgery cuts down the risk and the cost by half if pre-fabricated devices are used, says Dr Mulay.

(Patient’s name has been changed to protect his identity)