Apollo Hospitals uses NASA’s Super Plastic to treat heart patients

In a first, doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi used ‘Super Plastic’ to operate upon two heart patients last week. ‘Super Plastic’ is a material NASA invented for insulation in spacecrafts. The patients have been discharged.

In a first, doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi used ‘Super Plastic’ to operate upon two heart patients recently. ‘Super Plastic’ is a material NASA invented for insulation in spacecrafts. at the used ‘Super Plastic’ to operate upon two heart patients last week. ‘Super Plastic’ is a material NASA invented for insulation in spacecrafts. The patients have been discharged.

“”This is the first time that a NASA spin-off technology was used for an implantable device,”” said Dr Balbir Singh, Interventional Cardiologist at the hospital. “”Having used this path-breaking technology to treat two of my patients, I am confident it will prove to be a boon for patients around the world, especially in therapies on difficult-to-reach parts of the heart.””

The material used in the operation – Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) -is the thinnest lead in the world. Super Plastic helps position it. “”NASA’s super plastic insulation has superior electrical isolation qualities, which enables it to position the thinnest lead body easily,”” Dr Singh said.

The material used in CRT is a miniature implantable device designed to help patients with congestive heart failure by tweaking the contractions of the heart. These devices send tiny electric pulses through fine wires that travel through the left and right ventricles of patients suffering from heart failure, a chronic condition estimated to afflict over 10 million Indians.

Super Plastic is a multi-purpose, self-bonding, amorphous and recyclable thermoplastic material developed by Dr Robert G Bryant, a chemical engineer at NASA.