Hyderabad,  A 60-year-old man who is working as an IT consultant got a new lease of life after a team of cardiologists at a city hospital performed a complex cardiac procedure called 3-dimensional mapping of heart along with radio frequency ablation.

Patient came to the Continental Hospitals with a history of hypertension and complained of chest pain on the left side associated with severe palpitations. No amount of medication could provide him any sort of relief since past 6 months, doctors said.

On cardiac evaluation, the patient was diagnosed with the presence of rare foci leading to arrhythmia. It was also extremely unusual in terms of the location of these foci, being situated extremely close to the root of left Coronary Artery which supply 60-70 per cent of blood to heart. This condition was left undetected in angiography when the patient had similar complaints in the past.

Dr Ashutosh Kumar, Sr. Consultant, Cardiology & Electrophysiology, Dr Meeraji Rao, Sr. Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Dr Abhishek Mohanty, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Dr. Ramakrishnadu, Consultant Cardiologist, and their medical team mapped out a two-step treatment procedure for the patient which included location of the foci precisely that caused these extra beatings of heart using a highly advanced cardiac procedure called 3-D Cardiac Mapping. Along with correction of this arrhythmia using radio frequency ablation procedures.

On April 8, the of experts performed this complex procedure which lasted for four hours to save the life of the patient keeping in mind the necessary precautions to be taken for Covid-19. "This patient was a unique case in two aspects. One that it is very uncommon and secondly the location of ectopic beat is very close to critical vessel (left coronary artery ostium)," said Dr. Ashutosh Kumar, who led the Interventional procedure of cardiac electrophysiology and ablation.

The radiofrequency ablation is catheter ablation procedure that uses radiofrequency energy (similar to microwave heat) to destroy a small area of heart tissue that is causing rapid and irregular heartbeats.

"The location of this ectopic beat is extremely challenging for us to map and ablate. However, with availability of advanced technology of NavX guided 3-Dimensional mapping of abnormal focus and with advanced 16 pole catheter (HD grid catheter), we acquired the precision and ablated it safely without any complications," he said.

The patient was discharged on 48 hours of observation of the interventional procedure and is now geared up to lead a healthy and active life and daily routine.