Pune doctor's 'rare cases' get global recognition

At a recent conference in Switzerland, doctors from across the world were presented two rare complex cases managed by Pune cardiologist Rahul Patil for discussion.

The global recognition is important since the conference saw 75 complex case presentations from doctors from 42 countries of which Dr Patil was the only doctor from Maharashtra.

The conference titled ‘Endovascular Cardiac Complications’ took place in Switzerland where Dr Rahul Patil and many other cardiologists all across India submitted their complex cases for discussion. This is the only conference across the world that deals with only complications related to angiography, angioplasty and cardiac interventions procedures.

Of the two cases submitted by Dr Patil, one pertained to Kishori Patil (4 years) who suffered from a rare disorder called patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) where by birth there was a connection between aorta and pulmonary artery.

“Because of this connection there was increase blood supply to lungs and the baby was underweight, repeated respiratory tract infection and early signs of heart failure. The girl was considered for device closure but due to high right sided pressures, the device jumped out from PDA into descending abdominal aorta. This is a very rare complication which is usually managed by open aorta surgery,” said Patil.

The second case was a 60-yr-old man Mirza Baig from Latur who had suffered heart attack and angiography showed triple vessel disease. The patient underwent a complex angioplasty with five drug eluting stents but during angioplasty, patient had complication due to undeployed stent embolisation.

“It is a rare complication which could be due to manufacturing defect in the stent, calcification in the artery or tortuosity in the artery,” said Patil. The patient was managed without surgery and after six months, he shows good heart function on a stress test.