BENGALURU: A 30-year-old man who was suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was successfully treated with alcohol septal ablation by doctors at Manipal Hospital, Sarjapur .
The man was suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from birth. For the past one year, he was suffering from severe chest pain and was unable to walk and go about his work. The doctors tried many ways to reduce the pain and had even decided to do an open heart surgery. After some research, the doctors performed an alcohol septal ablation treatment to decrease the pain.
According to hopkinsmedicine.org blog, “Alcohol septal ablation is a non-surgical procedure to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is an inherited condition in which the heart muscle is abnormally thick. This procedure decreases symptoms and reduces future complications”.
The doctors at Manipal Hospital, Sarjapur, explained the procedure at a press conference. Alcohol septal ablation requires a thin, flexible tube called a catheter, which has a balloon at the tip, and they thread it to the blood vessel and inject alcohol through the tube. The alcohol is toxic and causes heart muscle cells to shrink and die. The remaining scar tissue is thinner and improves blood flow.
“Alcohol septal ablation is done only for people who suffer from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In the beginning, we try with tablets and the next option is to go for surgery. The man was young, and he did not want to undergo surgery, so we informed him about this procedure. This cannot be done for all patients; it can only be done for certain groups of patients. The alcohol cannot be consumed”, said Dr Suraj Narasimhan, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist and Structural Intervention Specialist at the hospital.
“We have to be very careful while injecting the alcohol. This is a rare procedure. We sedate the patient, induce a heart attack and shrink the heart muscle. This has to be done meticulously as there is a chance that the patient will die. This procedure completely depends on the patient’s anatomy”, he added.