The Secunderabad-based Yashoda Heart Institute, the Cardiology wing of Yashoda Hospitals, organised a live demonstration of implanting an advanced pacemaker that synchronises and stabilises the functioning of left and right ventricles. It was organised as part of a two-day workshop on Heart Failures and Complex Coronary Interventions.

The workshop was organised by the Yashoda Hospitals, as part of its commitment to disseminate specialised knowledge about complex procedures to practising cardiologists across India. Participants of the workshop, numbering over 300 from across India, had an opportunity to watch the live implantation of the CRT device on a patient by Dr Rajasekhar Varada of Yashoda Hospitals, one of the few trained implanters in India and Dr Bemhard Kuepper from Germany, a renowned cardiologist specialising in implantation of CRT device.

Knowledge gained by watching the live demonstration of the cutting edge level technique was of immense value to practising cardiologists in treating the ever-increasing number of cardiac-related problems in India.

The cardiac resynchronisation therapy would help improve the quality of life of patients suffering from heart malfunctions and improve longevity. The CRT is the most under-utilised practise in India due to high costs, lack of awareness and primarily due to shortage of specialists to perform these procedures. The efficacy of the CRT obviates the need for a heart transplant.

Dr G S Rao, managing director, Yashoda Hospitals said, "At Yashoda Heart Institute, we encourage sharing of knowledge, procedures and information thereby increasing the awareness about medical advancements. The Institute is equipped with three fully digital flat panel Cathlabs. We are one of the few centres in India to have an advanced electrophysiology lab with the latest 3D cardiac mapping system."

The cardiology work at the hospital is further supported by ultra modern non-invasive tools such as South India's first high definition cardiac PET Scan, dual head SPECT gamma camera,cardiacMRI, India's first Dual source 64 slice CT scanner with heart PBV and multi range CT scan with non-invasive coronary Scan. These technologies help in identifying coronary heart disease (blockages in arteries of heart), assessing viability of heart muscle after heart attack and predicting the benefit to patients from interventions such as angioplasty and CABGs.

All the Cathlabs are integrated via Picture Archiving and Communications (PACs) technology enabling our pool of over 30 cardiologists amongst all Yashoda Hospitals to analyse the procedures from any remote location giving doctors mobility and facilitates discussion on complicated cases.

Dr Rajasekhar, senior cardiologist, Yashoda Hospitals and organising secretary for the symposium and workshop informed that heart failure is a global disease that requires global attention. It is a condition wherein the heart becomes incapable of pumping enough blood to meet the body's requirement. The disease is rapidly expanding specifically in developing countries due to hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, abnormal hearth rhythms etc. Modern procedures involving pacemakers and defibrillators facilitates improvement in hearts pumping ability and improves quality of life for patients.