First indigenous Retrograde CTO (chronic total occlusion) done in J&K at Cardiology Department, Khyber Hospital Kashmir
Coronary CTO (chronic total occlusion) is a term used when a coronary artery remains 100% blocked for more than three months. These CTO’S are difficult to open and stent compared to a non CTO coronary blockage.There are two methods of opening this vessel by coronary intervention.
- Antegrade, i.e when we enter the same artery antegradely to open it. It has a success rate of 70 to 80 %, but is relatively easier.
- Retrograde approach is when we open the occluded artery by going through collateral channels from another artery, which has a success rate of 90 to 95%, but it is the most demanding and the most difficult intervention among all cardiac interventions.
This was a patient with CTO in right coronary artery with a length of more than 30mm and ambiguous proximal cap getting severe angina on exertion with LV dysfunction.
He had a failed antegrade procedure outside state few months back.This CTO was opened retrogradely by entering collateral channels from LAD (left anterior descending artery) followed by implantation of two stents with an excellent result.
This kind of a interventional cardiac procedure has been done on indigenous basis for the first time in J&K and should become a routine henceforth.
The procedure was done by Dr Syed Maqbool, Dr Irfan Bhat and Cath Lab team including Ulfat, Hameem and Sarwar.Critical Care backup was provided by Dr Showkat Shah.
