Paving the way for more and more open heart surgeries in Jaffna

With open heart surgery being initiated at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital this month, bypass operations are to be launched in about two months.

All arrangements are being made to begin coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) at the Jaffna Hospital, the Director-General (DG) of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe who paid a visit to the hospital soon after the first two surgeries on December 20 and 21, told the Sunday Times.

“We have made arrangements to send perfusionists on a rotational basis from the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) and the Kandy and Karapitiya Teaching Hospitals to the Jaffna Hospital, until permanent perfusionists are appointed there,” said Dr. Jasinghe, adding that the way is being paved for more and more open heart surgeries at Jaffna with the support of Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne.

Perfusionists are essential members of the cardiac surgical team when performing open heart surgery using the heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass machine which takes over the functions of the heart during the operation).

With heart disease being the No. 1 killer in Sri Lanka and the world, CABG would help numerous patients in the Northern Province. CABG improves blood flow to the heart in patients who have severe coronary heart disease and whose coronary arteries have a heavy build-up of plaque. Such a plaque build-up narrows the coronary arteries and reduces the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart.

If the plaque ruptures, it can set off a blood clot which can block the blood flow in a coronary artery, causing a heart attack. In CABG, a healthy artery or vein from the body is connected, or grafted, to the blocked coronary artery, bypassing the block and creating a new pathway for blood to flow to the heart muscle.

Dr. Jasinghe also assured that more Intensive Care Unit beds would be dedicated to patients who have undergone open-heart surgery at the Jaffna Hospital.

The first two open heart surgeries at the Jaffna Hospital were to repair holes in the heart (atrial septal defects – ASDs) of a man and a woman. They were performed by a team headed by Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr. Mugunthan Sithamparanathan with the support of the Anaesthetic Team, the ICU doctors, the Cardiology Team, the Perfusionists, the Nursing Team and the Health Assistants.