Breakthrough day at Amrita Hospital: Docs treat four cardiac cases without open surgery

In what cardiologists are calling a major step forward for congenital heart disease management in India, four patients underwent Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement (TPVR) procedures on July 3rd at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, without requiring open-heart surgery.

- NL CORESSPONDENT

TPVR is a minimally invasive technique that replaces a damaged heart valve using a thin, flexible tube (catheter) inserted through a blood vessel, avoiding the need to open the chest surgically.

The patients, all of whom had undergone surgery during childhood for Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), a birth-related heart condition that affects normal blood flow through the heart, had returned years later with complications from a leaking pulmonary valve. This kind of leakage is a known long-term consequence of the initial repair. Traditionally, such cases would require another round of open-heart surgery, which comes with significant risks and extended recovery.