- Coronary artery bypass grafting is considered a safe heart procedure with mortality rate of 2-3 per cent
- Sedentary lifestyle, family history of heart disease, stress, smoking, hypertension are foremost risk factors that make one prone to ailment
- PM had a cardiac surgery in 2011 when complications occurred after Atrial Fibrillation Ablation
PM Nawaz Sharif is in UK awaiting an open heart surgery to be performed on Tuesday. Pakistan Today talked with cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to find out more about the disease ailing the prime minister, about the procedure that will be performed on him, his history of heart disease and possible complications arising from the procedure.
“PM has a history of heart disease. He went under the knife in 2011 as well to address complications after a procedure called Atrial Fibrillation Ablation – a procedure to regulate the disorganised, irregular electrical signals that cause the atrias (two upper chambers of the heart) to twitch or jerk irregularly,” said Dr Waleed Abbasi, a Cardiac Surgeon at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology.
“However, that procedure has nothing to do with the one the PM will undergo on Tuesday. Nawaz Sharif will undergo a heart surgery called coronary artery bypass grafting or CABG. The procedure takes a healthy artery or vein from the patient’s body and grafts it on to the blocked coronary artery creating a new path for oxygen-rich blood to flow to the heart,” he said.
Dr Waleed when asked about the risks involved in the procedure said, “This is a very safe procedure. Only two or three patients out of 100 develop complications after the operation and die. This is the mortality rate in Pakistan. The rest of the world has an even lower ratio. The World Health Organisation rates it between 1 and 3 per 100 operations. The prime minister, however, will have to take meds for the rest of his life.”
“Immediately after surgery, the patient is moved to ICU where he stays for three days under strict supervision. They are then moved to the general ward and after seven to ten days, they are discharged from the hospital,” he said. When asked about when the patient can travel, he said, “Usually we recommend the patient not to make long journeys at least for one month. Even after one month, the patient has to be cautious while making long journeys.”
Talking about the CABG being performed in Pakistan, he said, “We’ve been performing the same procedure in Pakistan for the last 15 years. We’ve performed more than 800 operations in the last three years in Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology. In Pakistan Institute of Cardiology, thousands of operations have been performed so far.”
“Sedentary lifestyle, family history of heart disease, stress, hypertension and smoking are the foremost risk factors in heart disease,” Dr Waleed said when asked about what makes a person more susceptible to this disease.
