Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad performed the first coronary angioplasty in India using Absorb – BVS !

Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad recently performed the first coronary angioplasty in India, using Abbott’s recently launched fully absorbable stent-also called the bioresorbable vascular scaffold (ABSORB – BVS). It is the first drug-eluting, fully bioresorbable device made of polylactide, a naturally dissolvable material commonly used in dissolving sutures.

The revolutionary device which is made of dissolvable material and is a natural substitute for the metallic stent, which is being currently used to prop open the artery at the site of blockage after an angioplasty. Unlike a metallic stent which remains in the body for lifetime, absorb-BVS dissolves in due course of time and is therefore devoid of any side effects. The metallic stent being a foreign body sometimes creates side effects and to suppress these side effects the patient has to be on drugs for the entire lifetime .

The device similar to a small mesh tube, is designed to open a blocked heart vessel and restore blood flow to the heart. It provides support to the vessel until the artery can stay open on its own and then dissolves naturally over time. Once in place, absorb-BVS leaves patients with a vessel free of a permanent metallic stent and allows the vessel to resume more natural function and movement, enabling long-term benefits.

This complex procedure was led by Dr P C Rath, senior interventional cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals and his team of interventional cardiologists namely Dr Manoj Agarwal, Dr B V Purohit and Dr Kripal Reddy. Use of ABSORB BVS begins the mark of a major milestone and is referred as the fourth revolution in interventional cardiology.

Dr Rath and his team implanted absorb-BVS on a 35 year male patient, who suffered a massive cardiac arrest ten days ago. He had a 99 per cent block in one of the main coronary vessels (left anterior descending artery). The artery has been cleared of the blockage with a balloon angioplasty and was implanted with the absorb-BVS.