The Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) at the Military Hospital recently conducted a successful closure of congenital heart defect in infants by using the Amplatzer perimembraneous ventricular septal occluder for the first time in the country.

Talking to Pharmabiz, Col Charanjit Singh said, "This procedure was done for the first time in the country at MH-CTC for Ventricular Septal Defect. (VSD), perimemberaneous. We used a device called Nitinol, manufactured in the US, to correct the defect in five infants. The time consumed was only 45 minutes to 60minutes.'' Dr Amin Zahid of University of Nebraska, Col. Singh and Lt Col JS Dugal of MH-CTC jointly performed the procedure.

Giving further details, he said," this defect is generally found in babies in the age group of 2-5 years and with this device the correction of such defect has become less time consuming and has further reduced the risk. This device was introduced in MH-CTC two yeas ago and we have performed around 50 cases related to cardiac congenital defects such as artial septal defect (ASD), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and VSD, which was the first of its kind case in the country which we performed successfully.''
said Col. Singh.

He further informed that VSD is the most commonly occurring defects in cardiac congenital defects, which is estimated to be around 25 per cent, followed by ASD which is around 15 per cent and 10 per cent cases are found to be of PDA.

According to Col Charanjit Singh, Nitinol is better than any other existing device used to correct such defects, "This will surely pick up in the years to come due to its tremendous benefits,'' opined Col Singh.

At MH-CTC the cost of such a procedure to correct congenital heart defects is Rs.65,000 which costs Rs.1 lakh in private hospitals and this facility is extended to the civilians as well, informed Col. Singh.