Female dog (representative image)
– Photo : Amar Ujala
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A dog suffering from a complex heart disease successfully underwent a minimally invasive heart surgery at Max Pets Hospital, East of Kailash. Veterinarians claim it is the first such procedure performed by private practitioners in the Indian subcontinent. Dr Bhanu Dev Sharma, small animal interventional cardiologist, said on Sunday that seven-year-old beagle Juliet had been suffering from mitral valve disease for the past two years.
The condition is caused by degenerative changes in the mitral valve leaflets, resulting in backflow of blood into the left upper chamber of the heart and subsequent congestive heart failure (fluid build-up in the lungs) as the disease progresses. The surgeons performed the transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) procedure using a valve clamp on May 30. It is called a hybrid surgery as it is a combination of a micro surgery and an interventional procedure, Dr. said. The best thing about this procedure is that it is minimally invasive as it is a beating heart procedure and not like an open heart surgery that requires a heart lung bypass machine.
According to the pet’s parents, they had been giving Juliet heart medication for the past one year, said Dr Bhanu Dev Sharma. He said he came to know about the procedure during a visit to the US, where the surgery was introduced at Colorado State University two years ago. The pet dog was discharged in a stable medical condition just two days after the surgery.
