Bengaluru: The doctors at M.S. Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre recently came across a challenging case of a 53-year-old man Sathish (name changed), whose heart and lungs were in a very critical condition and they had to use a unique method to facilitate his recovery.
His heart function was drastically reduced due to lack of blood supply and as a result it affected various organs of the body due to insufficient oxygen and nutrition. The patient was in ‘cardiogenic shock’. Along with the shock, he had also developed severe breathlessness due to excess fluid in lungs.
This posed a challenge to the doctors. His breathing was supported with mechanical ventilation; however both his blood pressure and oxygenation continued to be low.
“Since we felt that his condition is potentially correctable and we had already given maximum conventional treatment, we decided to support both his heart and lungs using Extra Corporeal Life Support popularly known as ECLS or ECMO, where a pump is used to take over the function of the heart and a membranous oxygenator is used to take over the function of the lungs,” explains Dr Ravi Shankar Shetty, Consultant Cardiothoracic and Transplant Surgeon at M.S. Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre. One of the doctors said the operation was unique as this treatment is generally used for patients suffering from myocardial infarctions.
During ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) the heart and lungs are bypassed and the blood is oxygenated outside the body (extracorporeal) by an artificial lung and circulates with the help of an external pump, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.
This is similar to the heart-lung bypass machine used during open heart surgery. The patient was supported on this system for five days. “His condition had to be intensively and meticulously monitored round the clock during this time,” says Dr Ravi Shetty.
