Photo Cardiac surgeons at St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv, in collaboration with the Amosov Institute, performed one of the most difficult heart interventions – the Ferrazzi operation.
Ukrinform correspondents visited open heart surgery using the latest technology.
In the Lviv region, for the first time, cardiac surgeons performed open heart surgery using Ferrazzi technology/Photo: Anastasia Smolienko. Ukrinform
“Today is an important event both for us and for our regional colleagues. For the first time in Lviv, we are operating within the framework of the Program for the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death in Ukraine on a patient who has been diagnosed with a congenital pathology – hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It is a defect that causes sudden death and is difficult to diagnose. We learned to identify and operate on this serious illness in Italy several years ago and now we share our knowledge with regional centers,” said Deputy Director of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. MM. Amosova, Doctor of Medical Sciences Konstantin Rudenko.
Master classes on the latest technology by Ferrazi, of whom Rudenko was once a student, were held in 15 regional centers of Ukraine. They operate not only on older people, but also on children and adolescents. In recent years, the Amosov Institute has the greatest experience in Europe in the surgical treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
The patient whose life was saved in Lviv was 48-year-old Sergei Tsypko from Kovel, in Volyn. Five years ago he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. At first the man was treated with medication, but over the last year conservative treatment has lost its effectiveness.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or as people say, a large heart, is a congenital hereditary defect in which blood circulation is impaired and leads to a thickening of the interventricular septum. Normally, it should be no more than 1 cm, but for Sergei it is as much as 2 cm. As a result of this pathology, the heart rhythm is disrupted, blood does not circulate properly and the patient may die suddenly.
“Today in our center the beginning of a new method of heart surgery took place. It is important for us that our colleagues came and shared their experience with us. This is very important, because there are a lot of such patients: 70 thousand with this diagnosis in Ukraine, and it is difficult to say how many are still underexamined. Every year, the lives of 10% of such patients are cut short by sudden death,” said Roman Domasich, head of the Heart and Vascular Center of the First Medical Unit in Lviv. The operating room was crowded for several hours, because not only a team of cardiac surgeons was working, but also many graduate students, going over the latest experience. The operation using the Ferrazzi method is one of the most difficult. The patient's body is cooled to 31-32 degrees, the heart is stopped. While surgeons are working, blood circulation is artificially supported by devices. Doctors note that for the patient this is the safest heart surgery of all known.
According to doctors, after the intervention, Tsypko will remain in intensive care for 1-2 days, and then he will be transferred to the general ward. After discharge, echocardiographic monitoring and supervision by a cardiologist are very important. At least once every six months, the patient must undergo an ultrasound of the heart to make sure that there are no abnormalities in the heart and vascular system.
As Ukrinform reported, in January of this year, cardiac surgeons at St. Panteleimon Hospital in Lviv performed the first Ukraine underwent heart surgery using the Da Vinci robot, saving a man with a pre-heart attack.