- Woman was suffering from a disease called mitral stenosis
Chronicle Reporter, Bhopal
Doctors at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Center have succeeded in re-opening the shrunken heart valve of a 61-year-old woman without surgery. This was a very difficult task because the patient underwent this procedure again.
The woman’s condition is fine now and she has been discharged from the hospital. Dr. Ashish Shankhadhar, Assistant Professor in the Cardiology Department of BMHRC, said that the woman had come to BMHRC with the problem of breathlessness and difficulty in walking. Echocardiography test revealed that the mitral valve of the woman’s heart had shrunken. This disease is called mitral stenosis.
In such cases, through Balloon Mitral Valvotomy (BMV) technique, a wire is passed to the patient’s shrunken valve and inflated with a balloon, which eliminates the patient’s problems. However, in this case, the medical history of the patient revealed that she had already had BMV 20 years ago. It was decided to do BMV again, but doing this is a very complicated task, because during this the valve can burst and the patient can reach a critical condition. However, this procedure done by us was successful and the patient is now completely fine. Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the patient received free treatment at BMHRC. It was said that earlier surgery was usually done to treat this disease. This is called closed mitral valvotomy. In surgery, the patient had to make an incision and had to remain admitted in the hospital for several days, whereas in BMV, the patient recovers quickly and is also discharged from the hospital quickly. Director of BMHRC, Dr. Manisha Srivastava said that about 15 procedures are done every day in the cardiology department of BMHRC, which is a good figure and the hospital is committed to providing better facilities to the patients.
What is mitral stenosis disease?
The blood flowing in the heart passes through valves between different chambers. There are four valves in the heart. Mitral, tricuspid, aortic and pulmonary. The valve located between the two chambers on the left side of the heart is called mitral valve. When the mitral valve opens, blood flows from the upper chamber to the lower chamber. Mitral stenosis means that the valve is not able to open properly, due to which there is not enough blood supply to the body. Due to this, the patient starts having problems like shortness of breath, difficulty in walking etc. Mitral stenosis in adults is mainly caused by rheumatic fever caused by rheumatic heart disease. This process starts with throat infection caused by streptococcal bacteria. If it is not treated, this throat infection turns into rheumatic fever.
Rheumatic heart disease develops due to repeated rheumatic fever. Symptoms of mitral stenosis may start appearing after 5 years of rheumatic fever. This disease is more prevalent among the low income group because they do not seek treatment in case of throat infection or other problems. Rheumatic fever is still common in developing countries like India.
What are the symptoms
– Many times no symptoms are seen in adults, but it is possible that symptoms may appear after exercise or sports. Generally, these symptoms start appearing in people of 20-50 years of age.
– Tiredness
– Having trouble in breathing
– Frequent respiratory infections
– Bleeding in phlegm
– Chest tightness that reaches the shoulders, neck or jaw.
