For the first time in Bangladesh, the doctors of the National Heart Institute and Hospital have used the latest ‘Robotic Angioplasty’ technology in heart treatment. At the National Heart Institute and Hospital of the capital, they have successfully placed a stain (ring) on the hearts of two heart patients with a robot. Between them, one is Azam Ali, a farmer from Kushtia, and the other is Morshed Alam (50), a Saudi expatriate from Chandpur. Two days after the surgery, they felt better and were able to walk around.
Through this, Bangladesh entered the era of successful robotic technology in treatment. Director of National Heart Institute and Hospital Md. Kamrul Hasan (Milan) and Head of Department of Cardiology Md. Salahuddin Ullubi inaugurated the robotic angioplasty on Sunday.
Pradeep Kumar Karmakar, the leading doctor of angioplasty, told the media that Pinaki Ranjan Das, Arifur Rahman, Saidur Rahman, Farhana Ahmed, Md. Hosni Amin, Badal Chandra Burman, Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan, Abu Saleh and Nusrat Rahman supported him in the medical team.
Dr. Pradeep Kumar Karmakar said the Robocath R1 system consists of a robotic arm in the cath lab. And the doctors control it remotely with a machine. The work that doctors used to do directly with their own eyes is now being done by robots. It makes the work very perfect. Surgery takes less time. The surgery on these two patients took 30 to 40 minutes which would have taken more than an hour if performed directly.
- This is a successful efforts of Dr. Pradeep Kumar Karmkar and his team
- The French-made robot will cost 5 crore taka
- The robot will stay for one month in Bangladesh and 10 patients will get free ring
- If the infrastructure is helpful, the hospital authorities will ask the government to purchase one.
Dr. Pradeep informed thwt, they brought the robot from the French manufacturer for a month to see if it fits the country’s infrastructure. The robot company provided 10 devices with the robot. With these devices, 10 patients can be placed rings through robots for free. If it is successful, the National Heart Institute and Hospital Authority will request the government to buy the robot. It will be possible to place heart rings permanently in the country by robotic method. Then the patient has to add only 20 thousand taka to the total cost of treatment. And the robot with which the angioplasty is done is made in France and costs 5 crore taka.
This expert doctor also said that, now the surgery is done with a robot connected with wires. That is, the patient was inside, we were outside in the control room. This can also be done at the Wallace facility. Our goal is to perform angioplasty with a control unit from outside the hospital. In this case, we can place the ring from the hospital to any part of the country with the robot.
How Robots Work
Robotic Angioplasty is the latest and most advanced heart ring technology in today’s world. Cardiologists still place heart rings from patients themselves in cathlabs. But with the help of robots, cardiologists can place the rings in the arteries of heart patients precisely from a distance from the patient. This robot has two parts, one is a robot arm which is in the cath lab. Another is the control section, from where the primary cardiologist remotely completes the entire ring placement procedure.
What are the benefits of this surgery?
The first advantage of robotic angioplasty is that the complex process of putting on the heart ring can be done very precisely and accurately by a robot. Another advantage for patients is that cardiologists perform direct angioplasty in a much shorter time and with fewer complications than robotically. Doctors who perform many angioplasties run into two problems at one time. First of all, due to radiation, many doctors are at risk of various types of cancer, including brain cancer and eye cataracts. In addition, when cardiologists work in the operating theater or cath lab, they have to wear a special 12 to 15 pound suit for long periods of time for radiation protection. As a result, the nerves in the neck get pressured and later the doctor cannot perform the angioplasty due to neck and arm pain after standing for a long time. Through robotic angioplasty, the heart ring can be placed in the cathlab control room, staying in his office, or at home if facilities allow, or even from abroad via the Internet, without radiation and without heavy special suits.
Notably, robotic angioplasty is currently the latest and most advanced heart ring placement technology. There are robotic angioplasty centers in 160 countries of the world, including the United States and India. Robotic Coronary Artery Bypass Graft or CABG is being done in India and Singapore. Professor Dr. Tejesh Patel started it first in 2018 in India. When he first performed robotic angioplasty, he placed a heart ring on a patient about thirty-two kilometers away. Since then, it has started all over the world and is now running in different countries of the world, constantly being connected with research and new technologies. However, in 2020, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was performed at the National Heart Institute and Hospital to replace the heart valve without cutting the chest. Then the aortic valve was replaced with the TAVR procedure. Pradeep Kumar Karmakar, a leading doctor in teaching robotic ring, has recently treated HOCM or Hypertropic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy after causing a heart attack for the first time in a government hospital.