6 rare surgeries performed at JKCI

Dar es Salaam. Specialists at Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute (JKCI), in collaboration with experts from United States of America, on Monday performed rare surgeries to six patients - three adult men and three adult women suffering from chronic total occlusion.

Coronary artery chronic total occlusion (CTO) is a complete or almost complete blockage of a coronary artery for at least 30 days.

In total, at least 29 similar operations have been performed at the JKCI since the beginning of this year, whereby at least 23 surgeries were performed before Monday.

Speaking to The Citizen by phone, JKCI director of Cardiology Services, Dr Peter Kisenge, noted that the operations were successfully conducted without opening the chests of the patients, a procedure medically known as catheterisation, whereby a thin, hollow tube called a catheter was inserted into a large blood vessel that led to the heart.

“This is different from open heart surgeries. In this procedure, we don’t open the chest of the patient. The procedure involves inserting of a thin tube into a blood vessel to unblock the vein of the heart, which is totally blocked for more than three months,” he noted.

The lead specialist at the Institute added that “Coronary CTO is caused by a heavy build-up of atherosclerotic plaque within the artery.”

Dr Kisenge clarified that such a kind of operation consumed at least one hour for unblocking the vein of the heart that was totally blocked prompting failure to send blood to the left side of the heart.

“We expect to perform at least 15 operations by the end of this week. These are among the patients, who were diagnosed with heart complications,” he noted.

According to Dr Kisenge, the patients were expected to be discharged from hospital soon after the operations depending on their recovery speed.