Muscat: A specialized medical team at the national centre for cardiac medicine and surgery (National Heart Centre) at the Royal Hospital conducted the first operation of its kind in the Sultanate of Oman to remove a bacterial clot from a patient’s heart through catheterization, using an AngioVac device.
Dr. Hatim Ali Al Lawati, Senior Consultant in Interventional and Structural Cardiology at the National Heart Centre, Royal Hospital, Head of the operating team, said that the morbid condition began with an infection in the blood caused by the dialysis catheter and developed into a bacterial mass that continued to grow inside the heart, despite being treated with antibiotics. The infection spread to the tricuspid valve between the right atrium and the right ventricle, he added.
Dr. Hatim pointed out that the AngioVac device consisted of a specialized endoscopic suction tube that was connected to an intravenous circuit outside the body to remove impurities from the blood and re-pump it back into the patient’s
central circulation system.
Dr. Hatim stressed that the medical team spared the patient the need to undergo surgical intervention, besides reducing the period of antibiotic treatment and eliminating the main source of infection. The operation was successful and the patient’s condition became stable, Dr. Hatim affirmed.
Source: Oman News Agency