Cardiologists at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderaguda have performed a pioneering procedure on a middle aged male patient suffering from a chronic total occlusion (CTO), using a cross boss and stingray device, for the first time in the country.

In a joint press conference, Dr. V. Surya Prakasa Rao, head of department (cardiology) & Dr. P.L.N. Kapardhi, director, Cathlab Services, Apollo Hospitals, said that CTO is a hardened 100 per cent block in coronary artery, formed over a duration of months or years. CTO causes cardiac pain on exertion. Usually bypass surgery is needed to clear the block.

“The patient has been complaining of chest discomfort on walking for the last few months. An ECG on him established that he suffering from a heart attack. A coronary Angiogram on him indicated 100 per cent blockage of a major blood vessel supplying blood from heart, with hard fibrotic calcific plaque. Looking at the complexity of the blockage, the patient would have in the normal course been advised a bypass surgery. He consulted Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda for an opinion. We found him an appropriate case for CTO-PCI Technique, offered to clear the block and put a drug eluting stent without surgery,” said the cardiologist.

Using the cross boss and stingray device the CTO was successfully cleared under local anesthesia. Cross boss and stingray device invented by American cardiologists is designed to penetrate and drill hard or calcified occlusions. This technique creates channel in hard block in a expeditious manner and enables deploying of balloon, drug eluting stent in the distal true lumen with precision. The entire procedure takes one and half to two hours and patient can be discharged after 48 hours. The procedure doesn't involve any suturing.

The Japanese pioneered the technology to clear the 100 per cent block and putting drug eluting stent. The Indo-Japanese Chronic Total Occlusion (IJCTO) club under Dr. V. Surya Prakasa Rao has done more than 600 cases of CTO without bypass using Japanese technology. This invention by the US doctors is a superior technique and is done under local anesthesia.